Of Warblers and Woods
by IrethR
Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'.
1. A sense of foreboding

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods**

**Rating: T for now**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'.**

**Notes: My first Glee fic and my first time writing in almost three years all in one. This is going to be a fun ride for me, and I hope some other Glee-enthusiasts will join me.**

**Also; English is not my first language and this is unbeta'ed. Ye be warned.**

**

* * *

**

"**I swear to Gaga, if Wes doesn't release that gavel in the next five minute****s I'm sneaking into his dorm tonight just to steal the damn thing."**

The dark-haired warbler receiving the text did his best to smother the giggle that threatened to escape –and failed, judging by the look on the face of the blonde warbler next to him- and chanced a glance to the other side of the room where the newest warbler and (and sender of the foreboding text) was sat. Kurt had his eyes fixed firmly on the council-table where Wes could indeed be seen stroking his gavel in a more than slightly disturbing manner.

"**And what, may I ask, where you planning on doing with it afterwards? –Blaine"**

Blaine focused his attention on Kurt now, seeing his right leg twitch slightly when the boy's phone buzzed, signalling that he had received the text Blaine himself had just sent him. Blaine then proceeded to glance at the council-table briefly. From the looks of it, Thad was arguing with David over who would be a better choice to cover at Regionals: Taylor Swift or Nickleback.

Personally, Blaine hoped they would cover neither one and would choose to do another Katy Perry song instead. He'd already rewritten 'Firework' and 'Last Friday Night' to fit an a cappella group after all, and it would be a shame not to make use of Katy's and his combined genius.

Another look at Kurt told him that the boy was making use of the time that the council was distracted by reading the text that Blaine had sent him. Somehow sensing that the glare of Wes and his Gavel of Doom was directed at him, however, he quickly put the phone back in his pocket and gave the Asian council-member his best _'Who, me? I didn't do anything.'- _smile, which wasn't all that good, to be honest.

Blaine was sure that this meant that he wouldn't get an undoubtedly witty response to his text until the warbler- meeting was over and sent Kurt smile #24™; _'Sorry for directing Wes' attention to you'. _

Kurt responded by sending him one of his famous smirks. After a moment, Blaine's phone started buzzing in his pocket. He gave Kurt a startled look, silently wondering if the boy had seriously just texted him without even looking at the phone that was still in his pocket.

Kurt sent him his _'Oh yeah, I'm a ninja!'-_ look and proceeded to subtly pull his hand out of his pocket and focus his attention on the bickering council- members.

"**You don't have to keep signing your name, Blaine, it's called Caller-ID :P Also, I was thinking about dying the rotten thing either a neon green or a neon pink colour. Haven't decided which yet. Do you think he'd mind?"**

Thinking to himself that the chance that Wes _wouldn't_ be mad was about as slim as Thad deciding to have a Disney-princess themed movie night (because, wow did that boy hate Disney), Blaine decided that the best course of action would be to stop asking Kurt after his plans. Plausible deniability and all that.

Of course, the best course of action was never the one he chose when around Kurt, so before he could change his mind by thinking up a hundred and one reasons why this could possibly prove to be a very bad idea he tried to imitate Kurt's ninja-texting skills by trying to text with his phone in his pocket. He failed. Miserably.

"**Blaine, honey, please refrain from trying to ninja-text while you've got your T9 on. I have no clue what you're trying to say. What have sparkly elephants got to do with it?"**

Blaine resisted the urge to face palm while at the same time refraining from making a bad Twilight- joke. Kurt would probably just force him to watch New Moon again or something. He'd never understand what the countertenor saw in the whole Twilight-franchise, but had learned not to mock it in his presence.

Gazing around the room he saw that Thad and David had gotten a few other warblers involved in their dispute and Wes was waving his gavel around, defending his own artist of choice: the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

"**Nothing, nothing at all. Who's to say you've got to stick to just the one colour though? Imagine how the colours would clash, not only with each other, but also with the striking red colour Wes' face will turn…"**

From across the room he could see Kurt try to stifle his laughter by biting down on his bottom lip. And if Blaine's eyes stayed on that lip for a second longer than was absolutely necessary, he wasn't going to admit to it. No, nothing to see there. Just checking to see that Kurt wouldn't horribly chap his lips a week before the big performance at Regionals or something like that. Just looking out for what's best for the group.

Before the boy –who had become his best friend in a surprisingly short period of time- had the chance to reply to his text, the slightly pretentious double doors of the Warbler meeting room were swung open. The petite brunette standing in the doorway immediately caught the attention of every warbler, straight or not. Blaine recognised her instantaneously and silently wondered what she was doing there. Unfortunately, she noticed him too.

"Hey Frodo, where's Hummel?" the Latina asked in her usual no-nonsense way. Behind him, Blaine could hear Jeff and Nick muttering to each other about how it wasn't fair that the gay guys always knew the prettiest girls. He saw Wes try to flatten his hair in an effort to look presentable and almost choked.

Before he had the chance to answer Santana – because he had finally remembered her real name, and boy would it have been awkward to have actually called her Satan, like he had wanted to- Kurt's voice pierced the quiet.

"Santana? Excuse me, coming through…Mark, would you kindly get your 'fro out of my face? Thank you. "

When he had finally made his way through the cluster of warblers that had been blocking his path and were admittedly almost all taller than him, he stood in front of his…friend? No, not quite. Kurt had never truly indicated he actually _liked_ the ex-Cheerio. Frienemy then?

"What are you doing here?"

The beautiful brunette looked the countertenor in his eyes and gave a small, almost self-depreciating, smile. And, were those tears shimmering behind her lashes? What had happened to the usually so confident girl? Granted, he couldn't honestly say he particularly liked the girl. She hadn't stopped calling him either Frodo, Hobbit or Mini-Gay-Me ever since they had met at Rachel's train wreck of a party, after all. It still wasn't all that fun to see her on the verge of tears though.

"I kinda need to talk to you, Porcelain. Got an hour?"

Kurt's eyes found David's, who gave him a barely perceptible nod, and picked up his bag from where he had unceremoniously dropped it at his feet. He nodded to the room of warblers and to Blaine in particular before giving a half-hearted little wave and turning back to his sort-of-friend/acquaintance. He hooked Santana's arm in his and strolled out of the room, his inquiries over what was bothering her fading away as the doors closed after them.

With Santana and Kurt gone, the remaining warblers seemed to realise that they had thrown away almost the entire meeting by arguing about which artist to cover –Blaine was planning on campaigning for Katy in the next couple of days- and had barely gotten any real practise done. Of course this also meant that they'd spend the remainder of the time left actually listening to what the council had to say and pretending to be well-behaved young men again.

Wes banged his gavel. Blaine silently vowed to assist Kurt in his quest to mutilate the wooden monstrosity. Jeff and Nick conspicuously edged away from Blaine.

"Alright warblers, since we obviously won't get anywhere regarding song choices today there's really just one more thing to discuss," Thad, the dark-haired council-member said in a grave voice. In a more chipper tone, Wes continued: "The traditional pre-Regionals Warbler Seclusion! We managed to get our usual spot near Joe's campsite. We leave on Saturday, at 5.30 sharp."

Blaine had heard about this. Supposedly the Dalton Academy Warblers would use the week before Regionals to get together in the woods somewhere in Ohio (no one outside of the council knew where exactly this was), bond even more as a team and rehearse for the competition in the freedom the forest offered. He hadn't been on any of these trips before since the warblers hadn't made it to Regionals last year and he had transferred to Dalton right after the Warblers had lost at Regionals the year before.

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became for the trip. No school for a week since the teachers excused the group from doing the work whenever they managed to get this far into a competition, having fun with friends, singing as much as he wanted, going hiking in the relaxing woods, spending time with Kurt- Here his thoughts stopped dead in their tracks. Kurt. Oh dear Lord. Kurt didn't like nature all that much. He had once told Blaine explicitly that the only time anyone would get him to go into a forest voluntarily would be when Lady Gaga would hold a concert there and all the dirt and insects would magically disappear in a cloud of purple sparkles. So, basically never.

From the smirks on the faces of the boys around him, he wasn't the only one to have reached that conclusion. Kurt wasn't really close with any of the other warblers yet, but they all knew that he cared a lot about hygiene and general cleanliness. And they all had a pretty good guess as to who was going to have to break the news that he was going to be spending a mandatory week in the woods of Ohio getting filthy.

As if to prove what Blaine was thinking, David stole Wes' gavel – Blaine really needed to ask how he was able to that, seeing as Wes had had a death grip on it the entire time- and banged it on the table.

"Okay, so Blaine gets the honour of telling Kurt. The rest of you; try coming up with some decent song selections for tomorrow's meeting. Meeting adjourned!"

Blaine didn't even notice Wes quickly steal his gavel back or David sneaking out the door. He didn't even see Jeff and Nick snicker over his plight. He had to tell Kurt. This was not a conversation he was looking forward to.

* * *

**Liked it? Loved it? Want to bash my head in for destroying the Glee- experience for you? Do share, constructive critisism is always welcome!**


	2. Misery loves company

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods**

**Chapter two: Misery loves company**

**Rating: T for now**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'.**

**Notes: Wow, not the response I was expecting! I really wasn't expecting anything until, like, chapter six or something. Instead I get 3 reviews, 3 favourites, and 9 story alerts! That's great!**

**Also, to clear up Santana showing up last chapter: It follows directly after 'Sexy' and I can't think of anyone she's go to to vent about it, other than Kurt. This chapter will revolve around the two of them.**

**Something else: The fact that this makes two chapters in just as many days, doesn't mean there'll be a chapter every day, unfortunately. I've got school, and internship and ,well, life to cater to as well :P Chances are, most of my updates will be on the weekends or with a day or two in between them if I'm inspired to write. Set deadlines make me want to hurry a chapter out and it will be really, really bad. So there. Again: this is not beta'ed.**

* * *

"So, let me get this straight," Kurt said, after having listened to Santana's tale of confessing her feelings (yes, she apparently had them. Mercedes now owed him five bucks.) to Brittany and being rejected by the beautiful, but slightly ditzy blonde. The Latina's lack of response to his unintentional pun only proved that this was really bothering her.

He continued: "You finally came clean to Brittany about how you feel for her, she told you she loves you, but she won't leave Artie, because she loves him too?"

Her miserable nod struck a chord in him. Even though he and Santana had never been really close or even remotely friendly towards each other, he could sympathise with her plight. After all, hadn't he also fallen into the same traps as she had done? Fall in love with someone far out of your reach? Check. Granted, Finn had been single at the time as opposed to Brittany now, but seeing as he was as straight as they come and had become his stepbrother due to some misguided meddling in his father's love life on his part, that option was completely off the table. Kurt was grateful that they had gotten over their differences and had become almost as close as real brothers. When he thought about it now, he wouldn't have it any other way.

Okay, so he had the whole 'falling for someone unattainable'- thing down. Next cue one very dapper and attractive soloist of the Dalton Academy Warblers. Ever since Rachel's drastically out of hand party and Blaine's sexuality-crisis that had followed immediately after, things hadn't quite been the same between him and his crush. They had both apologised for the things they had said in the heat of the moment and for the most part hadn't meant, and had gone back to being friends.

They still talked and texted and joked together. They still watched too many musicals per week and always watched a Disney film right after the musical just so they could annoy Thad the next day by humming the songs. They still went for coffee each day, either before or after school. This used to depend on the length of time it would take both boys to style their hair in the morning. Ever since Kurt had moved into a dorm two weeks ago they started getting coffee after school so neither boy would have to rush in the mornings.

So yeah, they still did most, if not all, of the fun things together like they used to do. There was just an underlying tension there that hadn't been there before. When they were together now it wasn't as happy- go – lucky as it had been before. Kurt didn't anxiously count down the minutes until they would meet anymore and Blaine had stopped laying his head on Kurt's shoulder when they watched a film on Blaine's laptop.

The truth was, even though they had both apologised and said they forgave each other and were ready to be friendly again, but neither boy had really forgiven the other. Blaine was probably still a little hurt that Kurt hadn't been more supportive when he had had his big bisexual freak- out and Kurt was still smarting over the fact that Blaine had compared him to the bully that had ran him out of McKinley. Blaine had apologised for everything but that and probably hadn't realised that he had hurt his friend more with those words than with kissing Rachel and going on a date with her.

Kurt had started to see cracks in the perfect mask that Blaine always has on. It was a combination of things that the noticed about the other boy that started seeing him more like a human being than like the god-like creature he had created in his head. Blaine was oblivious, couldn't function without having had his morning coffee, comforted to the Dalton standard a bit too much, had a tendency to do dramatic things like sing to a Gap-employee he had only had coffee with twice and didn't think about other people's feelings as well as he should before acting on an urge to something.

Still, Blaine was pretty much perfect in Kurt's mind. He just realised that he wasn't as perfect as he portrayed himself. And that was okay. Kurt was happy just being his friend, even though he still really wanted to be more than that. But since Blaine had effectively friend- zoned him on Valentine's and had made it clear that a friend was all he was going to be to Kurt, the brunette warbler had decided that a friendship was all he was going to aim for with the lead soloist. For now, that is. Harry and Sally were friends at first, right? No if only they could be as friendly around each other as they were before the level of awkwardness between them shot through the roof…

So yeah, he could sort of sympathize with what Santana was going through right now. The curvaceous former cheerleader sat in front of him on his bed with her knees pulled up to her chest and her head resting on them. Her big brown eyes were looking up at him as if he was her own personal gay Yoda that held all the answers to the questions she had about pursuing a relationship with the girl she was in love with. Huh, so this is what Blaine must have felt like in the first few weeks of their friendship. Scared shitless, awkward and not to mention completely out of his depth.

"Don't hate me for saying this Santana , well not any more than you already do at least, but I think that if you really love Brittany –and I'm sure that you do, so don't give me that look- that you should just let her be with Artie for now. You'll just cause pain to all through of you in the long run if you try to break them up now," he finally said softly. He knew he didn't have to speak any louder. She was straining to hear every word he said anyway.

"It's not that I didn't consider that, because I did," the usually much fiercer girl said, "It's just that I really, really don't want to do that , you know? I've finally laid it all out there for her and she just stomps on it all and tells me that if she and Wheels ever break up, she'll be all mine. I mean, what's that all about, huh? What's Wheels got that I don't?" She probably saw the twitch of Kurt's lips that seemed to want to say _'Really, Santana? I thought you knew by now what boys looked like without any clothes on._', because she added: "Oh shut it, Kurt. You know what I mean."

The lithe brunette swallowed the comment and replied: "I know you don't want to right now, and I agree that what she said was probably the biggest verbal bitch- slap I have ever heard, but I think that it's for the best that you just let it simmer for a while. Maybe try to date someone else? Another girl even?"

The look she shot him at his words was an almost perfect copy of his own _'Bitch, please_'- glare.

"Okay, maybe not date just yet. Flirt a little maybe, let Britt see what's she's missing out on.. I don't know. Who am I to give advice about dating anyway? I'm still very much single and apparently have the sex appeal of a baby penguin." She raised her right eyebrow in a scary impersonation of Coach Sylvester. He explained: "The Warblers were trying to sex it up a little last week, and apparently I'm so 'unsexy' that Blaine had to try and give me lessons in how to look sexy. I failed. Spectacularly."

"Well. We can't have that now, can we?"

Suddenly the depressed girl had changed into the fierce Latina Kurt was more used to. Before he could ask what she was doing, she had pulled him up of the bed (and wow, she was much stronger than she looked) and was circling him like a bird of prey does it's, well, prey.

"Not bad, not bad at all. I can work with this," the girl muttered under her breath, firmly pushing Kurt's shoulders back forwards when he tried to turn around to ask her what she was going on about. "Okay, Princess, it's time for your induction into the world of _'Sexy_'."

Kurt's look of utter mortification said it all.

For the next forty-five minutes random boys passing by ( or not so random, seeing as a rumour had been going around, stating that there was one _very_ hot girl in Kurt's room) were treated to a constant string of words that seemed to make no sense at all and were, to be frank, quite confusing out of context:

"Sultry, Princess! We're going for sultry. You look like you're constipated. Try again."

"Santana, I don't like where those hands are go- Oh dear Mother of Fashion, get off, get off, get off!"

"Okay, so sidestep, shimmy, twirl, shake… that…booty, damn that is quite a nice ass you've got going on there…"

"Again with the hands, Santana!"

Just when Santana was getting ready to leave, knocked on the door. Santana gave Kurt the slightly mischievous, but mostly just diabolical smirk he had been dying to see all afternoon and whispered: "Come on, Hummel. Let's confuse the hell out of whoever's outside that door by starting a heavy make out session."

Kurt, however, wasn't fooled and replied just as teasingly: "Nice try, Satan. I know you can't wait to put your hands on me, but let's not shock the dapper, innocent, straight -laced prep boys, okay?"

"You suck."

"Now, Santana, you don't know that." Her high- pitched giggle was all the reward he needed for the hour he had spent with her, trying to make her feel better by letting her try to turn him into something he obviously wasn't. The girl picked up her bag, and strolled out the door, throwing a Hobbit-themed greeting at Blaine – who happened to have been the boy knocking- before walking out of the hallway, and presumably out of the school.

"Another pregnancy scare?" Blaine half-joked as he stepped in the room.

"Worse," Kurt answered absentmindedly, " Another sexuality crisis."

The silence from Blaine's end made Kurt give himself a mental facepalm. Okaaaaay, they were so not ready to joke about that yet. His bad. Before he could apologise for his words however, Blaine started talking. His face was a mixture of what looked to be nerves, a general sense of fear , some awkwardness and a hint of amusement. Kurt had a feeling he was not going to like what he was about to hear.

"Look Kurt, when you and Santana left the meeting wasn't over yet, and things were discussed, and well…there's something I have to inform you about."

Oh dear, he started to like the look on Blaine's face less and less. But let's be real here, what he was going to say couldn't be all that bad right? Right?

* * *

**Okay, I've noticed that I really like it when people tell me what they think about what I write, so don't let me stop you! R&R would be nice ^^**


	3. Preparing for nonfun

****

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods**

**Chapter three: Preparing for non-fun**

**Rating: T for now**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'.**

**Notes: Thanks for the review! No, I'm not planning on it, I hate when authors do that.**

****SPOILER: Also, since Klaine suddenly became canon (and even though I personally would have liked to see Kurt make Blaine sweat for a bit, since this really seemed like a sudden change of heart, I'm woman enough to admit that I sqealed like a little girl) I'm hesistant to continue this as I had planned it because they just looked _so perfect _together. I will continue, though, because I was planning on making this an arc that spans three stories, with Klaine being endgame, but I probably need to thread more catiously around canon Klaine now. Ah well.

**One more thing: I love that so many people put this story under an alert or as a favourite, I really do. The thing is, I just figured out how to use the stats-thingy (yes, I'm a bit slow when it comes to things like that) and I saw that over threehundred people have read the first two chapters, whereas only three left a review. I would like to know what people think of what I write, so even if you hated what you read, let me know. Tell me if I'm doing something wrong or my spelling is horrible. Constructive critism is something a writer loves most of all!**

__

**

* * *

**

__

To say that Kurt wasn't in the best of moods the next day would have been a bit of an understatement. No, scratch that. It would have been a very big understatement. The Dalton boys he met on the way down to breakfast made sure not to get in his way, and the ones that met his eyes quickly looked the other way. Kurt Hummel was not pleased. At all.

Stepping out of their dorm, Wes and David saw the look on Kurt's face, glanced at each other, and then quickly doubled back inside, smacking into each other in the process. On the other side of the hallway, Nick and Jeff –who were by now too far removed from their own dorm to be able to copy Wes and David's emergency evasive manoeuvre- looked at each other, nodded, and did a quick game of rock –paper- scissors to determine which of them would be able to get away scot-free while the other had the arduous task of distracting Kurt. Jeff won.

Nick nervously stepped up his pace to walk with Kurt while Jeff quietly made a break for it and nearly ran towards the dining hall.

"So, Kurt, buddy," Nick started saying, ignoring the way Kurt rolled his eyes at his usage of the word 'buddy', "I heard that you haven't been camping in a while—"

"Let me stop you right there," Kurt interrupted, "Yes, I'm about to go camping for the first time in over ten years. Yes, I'm preparing for a week in the dirty, unsophisticated, hygiene- challenged woods. No, I do not need any tips on how to survive if animals should attack, nor do I need advice on what to pack. And I certainly do not need any more people telling me it's going to be fun, because I sincerely doubt it. I'm preparing for a week of non- fun and you'd do best not to get in the way of my packing."

Nick decided that it was probably better for his health if he left Kurt alone for now and quickened his pace so he could catch up with Jeff.

* * *

There is a time in every young man's life when he decides to be brave and face what he feared (the metaphorical dragon) head on. This morning, Blaine decided while trying to straighten his tie out the way it was supposed to be, wasn't it.

He cared for Kurt, really, he did. In fact, he was pretty much the best friend Blaine had. Wes and David were nice and fun to hang out with and all that, but he was never as comfortably him as he could be with Kurt. It was just that, well, you know… Oh screw it. The kid could be damn scary when he wanted to be. Blaine vividly recalled the previous evening, when he had to tell Kurt they were going camping in two days' time:

_"Are you sure you don't want to sit down, Blaine?", his friend had asked him while he was putting his bed back to rights from whatever had transpired on there. Whatever it had been had left Kurt's sheets in a state of disarray, had flung his pillows through the room to land halfway into the bathroom, Kurt's desk had been wiped clean from his study books which were now spread on the floor where they had fallen and for some strange reason there was a bra hanging of his lampshade. _

_"I think I'll remain standing, thanks," he had answered ,still looking around the room. The only part of it that had remained strangely untouched was the unoccupied bed on the other side of the room. Blaine absently wondered if anyone had told Kurt about the fact that he did in fact have a roommate but that he had had to go back home because of some personal things about a week before sectionals had been. He then decided that it didn't matter at this point, because it was not was not what he was there to talk about. Still, he couldn't help but try and put of the inevitable by asking:_

_"Kurt, what exactly happened here?"_

_The boy in question looked up from where he was picking his pillows off of the bathroom floor: "Trust me, Blaine. You really don't want to know." Blaine took his word for it._

_Finally having put his bed to rights again, the lithe warbler had surveyed the rest of the room, made a vague 'ugh' sound and ungracefully plopped down onto his newly made bed. He had looked at Blaine still standing where he had been since coming in and asked: "So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"_

_"Right, about that," Blaine had replied nervously, internally debating whether he should sit next to Kurt to calm his nerves –because, strangely, Kurt had a calming effect on him- or to get as far away from him as possible, just in case. He chose to do neither and remained where he was, slowly forcing himself to say what he had come to say._

_"You see, the Warblers have this tradition where they spend the week before Regionals together, secluded from the rest of Dalton. In this week, the Warblers bond together and work on their set list so they can be a true team on stage at Regionals."_

_He could practically see the idea being turned over and over in Kurt's mind, before the boy seemed to shrug, and said: "Okay, Warbler bonding experience, I'm all for it. I mean, if it helps us look and sound like one solid unit at Regionals, it's probably a good idea, right?"_

_Blaine had offered a smile, thinking how Kurt was about to regret his words: "Just remember that you just said you were all for the idea, alright?" _

_Kurt had nodded with a rather adorable confused look on his face, so Blaine continued: "It's an off-campus thing. I believe the semi-official term is 'the pre-Regionals Warbler Seclusion' or something like that."_

_"When you say off-campus…."_

_"I mean really far off campus. Like a three-hour drive away from campus. I don't know exactly where it is that we're going, since only the council is supposed to know the coordinates for some strange reason. What I do know is, well, how do I say this?"_

_Kurt had looked at him with 'spit it out, man!'- look and he quickly continued, deciding it was now or never: "All I know is it's in the woods somewhere. We're going camping. We leave Saturday morning at 5.30."_

_The look of disgruntled surprise on Kurt's face really hadn't come as a surprise._

Nor, Blaine reflected while still trying to get his tie straightened just right, had the litany of words spewing from Kurt's mouth on how the outdoors would ruin his complexion and how he wasn't even sure he had clothes in his closet at home that he would want to take with him on the trip, and did he mention that the outdoors were filthy, especially in a forest?

All Blaine had been able to do during the forty-five minute speech Kurt set off on was nod dumbly –all traces of his usual dapperness mysteriously gone-, make affirmative noises every now and then and be in awe of Kurt's extensive vocabulary.

Deciding that his tie was as good as it was going to get, he turned from the mirror before he could find a flaw in his hair. _Maybe_, he thought to himself, _maybe it's not the best idea to go down to breakfast just yet. He's had all night to simmer and think up worst -hygiene –case- scenarios and I haven't had my morning coffee yet. What to do, what to do?_

His eyes fell on the small coffee- machine his parents had given him for Christmas and that he had never used because he and Kurt usually went out for coffee in the mornings anyway. Yes, this would do quite well, indeed.

* * *

The morning had flown by for Kurt. He spent his classes in a blur of trying to figure out what to take on the trip, and what not, what the weather was going to be like –his phone said sunny, so that meant he'd had to pack sunscreen to prevent his complexion from being ruined- and wondering why Blaine hadn't been to breakfast. Now, at lunch, he was deliberately poking at his salad, Blaine happily munching on his sandwiches across from him, with his phone at his left ear.

"Now, if you're quite done laughing, I'd like you to give dad the phone. Finn….Finn…Oh for the love of Prada, Finn! It's not _that _funny. Now give dad the phone."

While Finn- who didn't have to go to school today because the school was having to be cleaned top to bottom, something about the Hockey Jocks using Coach Sylvester's confetti cannons to shoot multi-coloured paint balloons _absolutely everywhere_- was laughing like a drunk hyena on the other end of the line, Kurt miserably took a bite of his salad, stubbornly ignoring the sniggering Wes and David on either side of him.

While slowly eating his salad and waiting on Finn to finally give his dad the phone, Kurt silently marvelled at how Wes could eat as much food as he did –unhealthy food at that; he was busy stripping his two hamburgers so that every single part of it had a separate part on his plate – and still stay so thin. He also wondered why no one batted an eye at the strange way Wes ate his burgers. He was startled out of his thoughts when he finally heard his dad's gruff voice over the phone still attached to his ear:

"Hey kid, mind telling me what's going on? Your brother looks like he's about to wet himself."

"First of all; ew.", Kurt replied. "Secondly, I kind of need your help with something. The Warblers are spending the whole of next week camping and I have no idea where we keep the camping supplies since the move. Okay, I didn't know where they were before we moved either, but that's not the point. I don't need a tent or anything, that's apparently being taken care of, but I do need things like a flashlight and stuff."

"….and stuff?", Burt Hummel's voice came through the phone after a pregnant pause where Kurt was sure he heard his father take a deep breath to steady himself for…something.

"Yes, stuff. Look dad, you know as well as I do that we haven't been camping since I was five. I don't know what all I'm supposed to bring with me, but I do need it all today, since we leave tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, alright Kurt. I'll, er, see what I can scrounge up." His voice sounded an awful lot like he was trying not to laugh. "I think we have some pairs of long underwear somewhere in the attic as well." There was no mistaking it now, his dad's voice was really strained and he could hear a few snorts escaping.

"Sure dad, go ahead, laugh at your son for going camping."

Apparently, his father took that to mean_ 'go ahead dad, I would love nothing more than for you to laugh yourself silly about my plight'_, and did just that. Across from him, he could see Blaine bite his bottom lip to try and stop his own laughter from spilling out. Next to him, Wes and David were starting to snicker as well. This was just a wonderful beginning to the week of non-fun.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please tell me what you think, and until next time!**


	4. A gathering of birds

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods**

**Chapter four: A gathering of birds**

**Rating: T for now (if things seem more M to you lot, do tell me, okay?)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'.**

**Notes: First of all; thanks for the awesome reviews! They made my day ^^**

**Secondly: This story is now a week old, and there are already four chapters of it! I'm so proud of myself right now! Especially since I only got as far as chapter two with my last story (life kinda screwed me over and I was a completely different person when I finally had time to start writing again, so I couldn't continue the story in the same style, since I wasn't in the same place as I was when I started it...wow, ramble much?), which is now up for adoption by the way. **

* * *

The next morning found a large part of the Dalton Academy Warblers gathered around the bus that was to take them to their destination. Being a Dalton Academy bus meant that it wasn't the gaudy yellow colour most school buses were, but was painted a rich dark blue with classy cursive declaring it to be a Dalton Academy bus in a beautiful red colour.

The boys gathered around the bus were for once not wearing their trademark school uniform, but were dressed for comfort since they would have to spend the next three hours at least riding in the bus. Closest to the loading block were David, Blaine and Jeff, who were quietly talking about the things they could do during their Seclusion to help with team building.

"Really Finn, would it kill you to go just a bit faster?"

The three boys turned around just in time to see Kurt come strutting around the corner. David and Jeff shared an approving nod; Kurt only had a relatively small duffel bag with him. Blaine on the other hand hadn't even noticed the bag Kurt had with him. The reason? Kurt was obviously _not_ dressed for comfort, like all the other boys were. In fact, what he had on –while irrefutably eye-catching- didn't look like it was comfortable _at all._ His bright red jeans looked as if they had been painted on, his black and white striped shirt stretched across his chest in all the right places – and since when did Kurt have such a toned chest?- and his short, studded black leather jacket didn't exactly look comfortable either.

This was distracting to Blaine because… he was concerned about Kurt not being comfortable because he was not wearing sweatpants like the rest of them. Yes, that was it. Just looking out for Kurt's wellbeing.

"Kurt, I have to say that I'm impressed. I honestly didn't think you'd be able to cram everything you wanted to take with you on the trip in one bag, like the rest of us did. I've been proven wrong.", David complimented with a smile. Blaine knew Kurt better than that though, and if the guilty smile on his face wasn't enough, the half-giant stumbling around the corner with a very sizable suitcase proved him right.

"I really don't see why you had to drag me out of bed at four just so you didn't have to carry this monster yourself," the boy grunted when he had set the suitcase down in front of the four Dalton boys. He continued: "I'm pretty sure you have bricks in there."

Jeff and David were looking at Kurt's suitcase with something akin to disbelief, which slowly turned in to awe, which in turn became a sense of wary acceptance. They were fools to have thought that Kurt would be a practical packer anyway, Blaine thought with a grin on his face. He then proceeded to lift the monstrosity Kurt called a suitcase and lifted it in to the loading dock. Finn had been right. That thing was _heavy_. Kurt gave him a grateful smile and continued talking to his brother:

"You know very well that that thing is too heavy for me."

"Codswallop. I've seen you lift Mercedes in the air and hold her there for five minutes."

"Codswallop? Have you been reading the toilet paper Rachel gave you again?", Kurt replied disbelievingly, "Besides, that was different. I could break a nail carrying that thing."

Finn rolled his eyes. "Can't have that, now can we? And yeah, I kinda did."

"Knew you'd see it my way. Besides, you really shouldn't be complaining. I woke you up with banana pancakes, those are your favourite breakfast meal."

"Yeah, those were _goooood,_"Finn replied with a dreamy look on his face. The dreamy look in his eyes was then replaced with a devious glint, a rare sight. "You know, if you'd make those for me again when you get back, I guess we could call it even…"

Blaine was trying to reign in his smile and failing. He knew Kurt couldn't deny his brother anything for too long, and would probably have made those pancakes if Finn hadn't asked for them. The small smile on Kurt's face proved him right.

"Done," the lithe warbler replied. Finn's face lit up. "I think you'd better be going now though. Weren't you supposed to meet Quinn at nine for a quote- unquote 'Romantic breakfast'?"

"Crap, you're right!", Finn exclaimed, before catching Kurt in what only could be called a 'glomp', nodding at the other boys –who were still staring in the direction where Kurt's suitcase had gone- and grinning at Blaine in a way that suggested exactly what that 'breakfast' would contain – and ew, that was not something Blaine liked to think about before having had breakfast-, releasing his brother and walking away at a brisk pace, calling a "Have fun, lil' bro," over his shoulder.

"I'm three months older than you!", Kurt called after him.

"I'm bigger! Now stop stalling and get on that bus!" With that, Finn disappeared around the corner.

"Of course he's bigger," Kurt muttered, turning around to face his fellow warblers again. "He eats enough food to feed an army. I ran out of eggs trying to make enough pancakes this morning."

Blaine choked on a laugh, making Kurt give him a look that told him he hadn't realised he was speaking out loud. His cheeks coloured a little and Blaine had to stop himself from reaching over and pinching them. It was harder than he thought it would be, since Kurt resembled a steadily reddening hamster.

David decided this was the perfect time to speak up: "What's with the ginormous suitcase, Kurt? I thought that duffel bag was all your luggage."

"Of course not!", Kurt looked like he couldn't believe someone would only need such a small bag when going camping. "Those are just toiletries and accessories."

Here, Blaine raised an eyebrow. "Whatever do you need accessories for, Kurt? We're going camping."

Kurt looked at him as if he had never seen him before. Jeff's near- silent giggling (yes, he giggled, but it was a manly giggle thank- you- very- much. Don't listen when anyone says different) had reached the ears of Thad and Trent, who joined their group silently, wanting to know what was so funny. Blaine started feeling just a tad uncomfortable because Kurt wouldn't stop staring.

Finally, Kurt said: "I thought you knew me better than that. Haven't I spent hours trying to teach you how to accessorize?" Here, both David and Trent started snickering while Thad was pointedly _not_ looking at Blaine. "Just because were going camping doesn't mean that you can't dress nice. Fashion over function, darling."

David looked like he was about to disagree, but a glare from Blaine quickly shut him up. Thankfully, Nick walked up to them then, with an annoyed look on his face. When the others looked at him questionably, he said: "Flint's late, _again_. We were supposed to leave twenty minutes ago. Wes is about to have a cow."

Trying to rid the image of Wes giving birth to a cow from his head, Kurt asked: "If he's always late, why didn't you just tell him to be here at five instead of five thirty? That's what I do when I need Finn to be on time somewhere."

"That's actually a good idea," Thad mused. "It's too late now, but we could do that next time."

"You don't have to look so surprised," Kurt teased. "I do have my moments, you know."

"Is everyone else here then? Is everyone's luggage on the bus already?", Jeff asked.

"It is, as far as I know. We're just waiting on- Oh, there he is."

And indeed, they could hear the signature screech of the tires of Flint's car taking a sharp turn. A second or two later the lime green Chevrolet everyone was used to seeing parked haphazardly tore around the corner and double parked. Out of the car stepped the sandy haired warbler everyone was waiting on. While the boy quickly grabbed his bag and threw it on the bus, Cameron –the only redhead amongst them- quickly got in the car to park it in a way that wouldn't hinder the bus from leaving, or the students that would be there on Monday from parking.

When Flint walked back to his car to see it parked, Cameron tossed him the keys and went to stand with the rest of the Warblers, who by now were lining up to get on the bus. At the doors was Wes with a clipboard in hand, ready to check off names.

"Flint, so nice of you to join us." The boy in question gave an embarrassed grin and climbed on the bust, picking a seat somewhere in the middle.

"Morning, Jeff, Trent, Cameron. Pick a spot." The boys did. They chose to sit behind Flint.

"Hiya, Blaine. Really, Kurt. Was that suitcase necessary?" Before Kurt could start arguing with Wes, Blaine dragged him on the bus. They sat across the aisle from Flint. Outside he could see Wes commenting while checking people off the list. While Evan and Ben settled in directly behind the driver's seat (Ben got car sick easily) he asked Kurt:

"So, Finn's back with Quinn now?"

The brunette muttered an affirmative while trying to stuff his duffel bag into the rack above their seats. Even though Kurt was tall enough now to reach the rack (Blaine had bribed Mercedes into showing him pictures of last year, and Kurt had certainly grown since then. Blaine was just a little bit jealous of that. He was still hoping to get his growth spurt.) the bag was simply stuffed to full to fit.

"Does Rachel know?"

He thought he saw Kurt's shoulders tense a bit, but wrote it off as his imagination when they immediately relaxed. He then gave a particularly violent shove and the bag stayed put.

"No, she doesn't," he answered.

"Ah. Regionals?"

Kurt nodded in the affirmative, a long-suffering look in his eyes. "Regionals."

Meanwhile Thad and Adam had taken the seats in front of Flint and Daniel had squeezed past him to get the window seat. Behind Jeff, Geoffrey had taken place, ear buds already in and eyes closed. Matthew and Jason took the seats in front of Thad and Adam, making sure Wes couldn't reign supreme from the very front of the bus. David took the place in front of Kurt, saving the window seat for Wes, and Robin and Edward took the two seats behind Cameron and Trent. All nineteen Warblers were accounted for.

Suddenly, Thad's phone rang. After a short conversation, he turned to David and Wes, then to the rest of the bus. He raised his voice a bit: "Alright Warblers, listen up. We were supposed to leave thirty- five minutes okay, but that failed. Now it seems that our driver was stuck in traffic. He's on his way now, and should be here in about fifteen to twenty minutes. Please don't leave the bus, but remain seated. Wes really doesn't want to go through the checklist again."

Kurt groaned softly and rested his head against his headrest. This was going to be a long journey.

* * *

**I'm not sure what I think of this chapter... Feedback would be nice. 'See' you next time!**


	5. The wheels on the bus

Title: Of Warblers and Woods

**Chapter five: The wheels on the bus**

**Rating: T for now (if things seem more M to you lot, do tell me, okay?)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'.**

**Notes: Been a while, my bad. Do you have any idea how hard it is to type with a sprained wrist? I didn't before, but I do now! **

**So, to sort of make up for the wait, this one's a bit longer than usual.**

**I hope you guys will enjoy this installment. Please keep reading and reviewing and PMing me and whatnot. It really makes my day when I see a new message in my inbox telling me someone left behind a review or and alert or a PM. Anyhoo, enjoy!**

* * *

After a _glorious_ wait of twenty-five minutes, Kurt was one of the first to see their bus driver come jogging up to the bus, duffel bag slung over one shoulder and a cup of Starbucks in one hand. _Really?_ The bus driver had taken the time to go get coffee while they were waiting on him? Not that Kurt was all that anxious to leave for the woods or anything, but it was the principle of the matter. That, and he could really go for a grande non-fat mocha himself right about now.

Next to him, Blaine suddenly sat up straighter. Looks like he had spotted the new arrival as well. And damn him if that grin on his face wasn't as infectious as that case of the mono Finn had had a while back. Something he still hadn't really heard all the dirt on. _Hmmm, must not forget to call Mercedes about that as soon as possible._

In front of them, he could see Wes's shoulders visibly sag in relief. He had been scribbling on the sheet that held their strict travel schedule for the last fifteen minutes, desperately trying to decide which of the two pit stops to cancel to make up for their last time. Next to him, David hadn't been exactly helpful with his suggestion to just take the express lane and pretend to be a dark blue ambulance, either.

Feeling just the slightest bit vindictive becauseWes had slighted his suitcase earlier, Kurt leaned forward and said: "Say, Wes. You do realise that the hour we just lost means that we'll end up in the morning tailback, right?"

Seeing the look of shock on Wes's face almost made up for the slight against his luggage. The surprised snort from Blaine and the horrified look on David's face as he looked at his slightly anal retentive friend made up for all of it. Kurt let himself fall back against the back of his chair while Wes started scribbling away again. _Let's get this show choir on the road._

* * *

**296.3 km to go**

"Okay everyone, listen up."

The boys stopped their conversations to look at the bus driver, who had taken the built- in microphone from its holder.

"I'm really sorry I'm late, since I'm sure all of you are really excited to be going on this trip"- Kurt muttered something intelligible under his breath- "But now that I'm here, and you're all here, we can finally be on our way. A few basic rules: You make a mess, you clean it up. You eat something, make sure it doesn't get on the seats. That's it really. I'm not really fussy. If you need anything, or have a question, my name's John and I'll be the guy behind the wheel trying to get us all where we need to be in one piece. Enjoy your trip."

With a crackle, the microphone was put back in its holder. From a ways behind them, Kurt heard Robin mutter to Edward: "Did he just say "in one piece"?"

* * *

**294.1 km to go**

"Trent, I'm bored."

"We haven't even left Westerville yet, Cameron."

"So?"

"So…get your iPod out or something. I'm not done sleeping yet."

"I forgot to charge it."

"You forgot…Of course you did. Then take mine. _Just let me sleep._"

* * *

**287 km to go**

Soft, wheezing snoring filled the bus. Jeff –never one to miss an embarrassing photo- moment- got out his camera and turned around in his seat. Behind him, Geoffrey had already succumbed to slumber. Right as his mouth opened a bit to let out the next snore, Jeff snapped a picture, Nick sniggering beside him.

From across the aisle Trent – who had by now given up on sleep since Cameron wouldn't stop dancing to his music in the seat next to him- scowled. Of course Geoffrey would be able to fall asleep. He had once slept through a fire drill. True story.

* * *

**278.4 km to go**

Next to Kurt, Blaine started rooting around in his rucksack. Kurt –once nicknamed 'Kitty' by his mother for this very reason- couldn't help his curiosity and looked over to see what he was doing. As Blaine pulled out a well- worn copy of '_The Tales of Beedle the Bard'_ he couldn't help but smile. His friend was such a nerd. He told him so.

"You nerd."

Blaine turned a dazzling grin in his direction. Kurt wondered why nerds were never depicted quite as handsome as this one was. His favourite nerd spoke:

"Oh, shut it, Kurt. You know you love it."

He did. He really did.

* * *

**261 km to go**

A crackle told the boys that someone was about to address them. When they looked to the front of the bus, they saw Thad holding the microphone, throwing a wary glance in Wes's direction, whose face was scary to say the least. Wes really didn't need any more bad news.

"Okay guys, looks like we'll be making our first pit stop a lot sooner than we had imagined. It seems like our driver has had a little accident with his coffee."

Wes groaned and let his head fall on his clipboard. David patted him on the back awkwardly. Jeff ran to the front to take a picture. He took one of the driver too.

* * *

**260.4 km to go**

With an embarrassed grin, John (the bus driver) got back on the dark blue bus. Wes stared him down, clearly _not impressed_. The Asian warbler took hold of his pen again and demonstratively took up the clipboard, starting to make adjustments to the schedule while never taking his eyes of the driver. Understandingly, this unnerved dear John quite a bit and the bus moved back onto the road faster than you could say 'show choir'.

* * *

**241 km to go**

Trent had finally fallen asleep, Jeff knew. He could recognise that snore everywhere. He pulled his camera out of its bag and snuck out of his seat, crouching down so he could get a good angle. The clicking sound the camera made, woke the sleeping warbler up however. Having a camera in ones face is not the ideal way of waking up, nor is it the most expected. Trent screamed. Not at all manly either. Jeff, having been startled by Trent's scream, joined in in a slightly more masculine manner.

Edward sneakily took the camera from Jeff and snapped a picture. Up front, Evan and Ben nearly peed themselves laughing. Geoffrey just turned over in his sleep.

* * *

**192.6 km to go**

"….or maybe we could try tying helium- filled balloons to the bus to make us _fly_ over the rest of the traffic!"

Wes turned an incredulous look in his best friend's direction. "And how, pray tell, would that make us get there faster? We'd be dependent on the wind."

David just grinned. "I don't know man, but wouldn't it be just _awesome_?"

Wes tried to resist that grin, he really did, but his friend's bubbly nature was just too powerful a thing to resist. And yeah, it would be all sorts of awesome to make the bus fly. So, he just smiled at his friend and went back to his clipboard. A few minutes later he threw down his pen, frustrated.

"That's it, I give up."

A hush fell over the bus, only penetrated by Trent's and Geoffrey's snoring. Matthew and Jason stopped their game of tic- tac- toe to turn towards the Head Council member. Thad looked at Wes like he'd never seen him before. A grin began to form on David's face. Kurt raised an eyebrow. Blaine reluctantly put down his book. Ben –who had been taken prisoner by his returning car- sickness- was too busy being nauseous to really care.

Wes heaved a great big sigh, obviously about to say something he really didn't want to have to say.

"We'll get there…when we get there."

* * *

**174.3 km to go**

"…and the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round-"

"Stop, Dan."

"….round and round, the wheels on the bus go round and round-"

"Please, Dan. Stop singing that infernal song."

"Oh, come on, Flint. It's fun!"

"I sincerely doubt that."

"…eeeeverywhere we go!"

"Done now?"

"Not quite there yet, Flintie-boy! Theeeereeee aaaaree nine-hundred and ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, nine-hundred and ninety-nine bottles of beer-"

"Daniel?"

"Hmm?"

"I will _end_ you."

* * *

**162.4 km to go**

"Okay boys," the driver's voice came through the microphone, "It's time for a genuine pit stop this time. We'll be here for about half an hour, so take a seat at one of the picnic tables or inside the restaurant to grab something to eat or something. Make sure you use the bathroom 'cause the next pit stop won't be for a while."

The boys walked off the bus, stretching their legs as they went. Flint nearly fled from Daniel, who by now was singing one of the most irritating songs known to men: _the song that doesn't end_. Geoffrey was shaken awake by Adam, who took pity on him. They were finally out of that bus.

* * *

**162.4 km to go**

The boys got back on the bus, some in better shape than others. Geoffrey slumped right back into his seat. Ben seemed to have really profited from the outdoor air and Evan felt a bit safer sitting next to him now. Thad's pants were covered in grass from a game of pick- up soccer and David and Flint didn't look much better. Blaine was soaking wet from having been on the wrong end of Cameron's water bottle and Trent was furiously trying to remove wads of paper and grass from his 'fro. In actuality, Kurt was really the only one to get back on the bus miraculously untainted by what had taken place outside.

As they got back to their seats, Trent started digging through his bag for a comb and Blaine peeled off his shirt, opening a window to squeeze the water out of it. The gel in his hair was coming undone and he shook his head to free his curls, spattering Kurt in the process. Funnily, the fair warbler didn't even seem to notice.

When the driver finally got on the bus everyone was ready to go. The driver turned on the radio and cheerily steered them off the campsite. Right into a tailback.

* * *

**160 km to go**

"Hey look, there's that bush we've been staring at. Still in the same spot."

"Ooh, but look, that bird wasn't there before."

"Actually, it was. I'm pretty sure it hasn't moved either."

"Ew."

They had been in the same spot for the past forty minutes. The boys, being teenage boys and even though they were Dalton Academy boys, were starting to get bored. Jason and Flint had started playing 'Go fish' over Adam's head, Robin and Edward kept a steady stream of sarcasm flowing, Daniel had run out of songs to annoy people with, Wes was cutting figures out of his schedule, and Kurt had started braiding Blaine's hair without the boy's knowledge. Said boy had dug out a copy of the '_Deathly Hallows'_ to replace _'The Tales of Beedle the Bard'_ and was immersed in it.

Suddenly David –who had started doodling stick figures on Wes's right arm- sat up straighter and said, a bit too enthusiastically: "Let's play Truth or Dare!"

Next to Trent, Cameron tried to make himself smaller in his chair. Seeing as the willowy teen was almost as tall as Finn, however, this didn't really work. Kurt simply said dully: "Let's not."

Unfortunately for the two of them, they did end up playing this game.

* * *

**149.4 km to go**

Two and a half hours and ten kilometres later, the bus drove of the road and onto another picnic site. They hadn't gotten very far, but time had taken a toll on the boys and the driver really needed to use the bathroom again. John took the key out of the ignition and opened the doors, getting out first to make sure every Warbler was of the bus. What he saw wasn't exactly what he expected.

The two boys that had sat behind him for the entire trip so far walked out first. The green-tinted boy grinned ear- to- ear, while his companion had the exact opposite look on his face. He – was his name Evan? Probably- was skipping every other step and counting them out loud.

Next came the Asian boy with the intense glare. He wasn't as scary as he had been before though, since he was twirling out of the bus, singing about how he was '_a tea cup, short and stout_'. The dark- skinned warbler that sat next to him on the bus was filming with his phone.

Out next was the vaguely Amerindian looking boy called Matthew, who miraculously managed to get off the bus walking on his hands. Walking behind him in amazement was his bus- buddy Jason.

The boys that were next though, were the first he felt comfortable saying something to. He remembered one of them was called something like Rayne or something.

"What happened to you hair?" he asked. The boy looked at him confused.

"My hair?"

Next to him, the slighter boy started edging away. And why was that boy wearing a tiger printed shirt? Didn't he wear something with stripes before? The boy with the difficult name felt his head in confusion. Suddenly, his happy smile dropped.

"Kurt!"

The lithe boy started running, the boy with the braids following him, but never picking up enough speed to catch up to him.

"Aah, zhe follees uf youth," a voice sounded next to poor, confused John. There stood the boy that had been singing those annoying songs. But why was he speaking with such a terrible French accent? Seeing the look on the driver's face, Daniel explained: "I 'ave to speak like zhees aul day."

The next few boys that came out looked all right to him, but he didn't know what would happen if they spoke or whatever so he didn't try to make conversation with them. The last two boys out the bus were the dirty- blonde Edward and the brunette Robin. Edward seemed to be stifling his giggles while Robin sailed out of the bus while doing a perfect – and what was it his daughter called those jumps again?- _grand jeté_. The brunette proceeded to rise on tiptoes and walk off like he was a professional ballet dancer.

John shook his head to clear away the astounded daze he had been in. He had a feeling he's see some weird things this week.

* * *

**98.2 km to go**

After their pit stop, the ride had gone smoothly. After _pas de chat_- ing to get back on the bus, Robin had settled down next to Edward once more, Trent was once again trying to get things from his 'fro – and how did those things keep getting in there?- and Blaine had settled sideways in his seat with his back against Kurt's chest after having released his hair from the braids. Kurt chose not to mention that his shirt would probably be dry by now, so he could put it back on.

About forty minutes after they had gotten back on the bus, Thad's phone rang. Out of politeness – and okay, a healthy dose of curiosity- a hush fell over the group so Thad wouldn't be distracted from his phone call.

"Thad…...Hey, how are you?...Yeah, I know it has to suck man…...Right, I remember being shown a video of that…...No shit, that's great!"

David and Wes turned to each other, each raising an eyebrow in question. No one seemed to have a clue who was on the other end of the phone.

"When is your flight?...You're at the airport now? Just assumed you could join the ranks again huh?-...….Jeez, relax H., only joking…...Yes, we did indeed say that...…..Yeah, no problem, I'll text you the address...…Oh, before I forget; you've got a roomie now!...Well, he's nice. Good voice. Bit of a diva from time to time…"

Kurt's left eyebrow rose to join his hairline. Was Thad talking about _him_? Surely not. No one had mentioned a roommate before. Besides, Blaine would have told him. Right? Looking down to where Blaine's head rested against his chest, he could see the boy smiling sheepishly up at him. Apparently not.

When Thad hung up, Kurt seemed to be the only one that didn't know who had been on the other side of the conversation. Thad stood up from his seat and grabbed the microphone so that everyone could hear what he was about to say.

"As you've all heard, I just received a phone call. Most of you have guessed who it was from by now, so I'll be brief. Harry is coming back to Dalton in time for Regionals, so we'll be a group of twenty Warblers, instead of the nineteen we've got here now. It's been a few years since there's been such a large number, but I think we can make this work!"

As the dark-haired Council Member retook his seat, Kurt tilted his head down so he could look Blaine in the eyes once more. "So," he started, "Who's Harry?"

* * *

**3.4 km to go**

Over an hour later, Kurt knew more about his new roommate then he thought his roommate knew about himself. Harry ( or _Hadrian_ really, but he hated that name with a passion) had started at Dalton at the start of that school year, after having graduated from secondary school in England. He had wanted to graduate from an American High School as well, to improve his chances at a good University. This meant that while the boy was a Junior, he was eighteen years old already.

Kurt had found out that Harry was a tenor –like Blaine- and had been only the twenty-sixth Warbler in the history of Dalton Academy to audition with a musical number (_'Send in the clowns_'), with Kurt being number twenty- seven. From this, David segued into telling him that Harry had some stage- experience and had grown up around West End. Kurt's eyes had gone a little glassy at this point.

Blaine –ever the nerd- had then told him Harry's last name with a gleeful smile.

"_You're kidding," Kurt had said, unbelievingly._

"_I kid you not," the curly haired boy had answered, with Nick leaning over one shoulder and Jeff over the other, both nodding as if confirming what he had just said. "His name is Harry Potier."_

_The way he pronounced it –like most non- native speakers of French were wont to do- made it sound like he said 'Potter' instead. Harry Potter. _

"_Oh, and if you think that's good, it gets better!_ ", _Wes had eagerly chimed in. "He actually looks like how the great J. K. Rowling described the boy- who- lived too!"_

_Here, David had cut in: "Not like the actor though. But like in the books. He has green eyes and black hair, and even wears glasses when he's too lazy to put in his contacts. He's plenty taller than the character though."_

"_Yeah," Wes had mused, "Pity, he almost had it."_

"_He doesn't really like it when you make that comparison, though," Jeff had said from over Blaine's shoulder, "He's had quite enough of that in England, I think."_

_Kurt had just shrugged. From what he had just heard his new roommate wasn't unattractive. Those were bonus points in his book._

It appeared that Harry had left for England because of a family emergency about a week before Kurt transferred school, and had as such left his spot in the Warblers conveniently open for him just before Sectionals. When Nick had mentioned the emergency, none of the boys had wanted to tell him about it, merely saying that the boy would tell him himself if felt like he wanted to.

He now knew that Harry was a great dancer, but prone to acts of clumsiness while simply walking or playing soccer or anything like that. He knew that the foreign boy didn't like coffee, but preferred tea. He knew that Harry would be with them tomorrow.

What he didn't know was if Harry took his showers in the mornings or in the evenings. He didn't know is he snored – Oh by Gaga, please don't let him snore- and he didn't know if he was a messy roommate. He didn't really know his taste in music or clothes. He didn't know a lot of inconsequential little things that roomies were supposed to know about each other.

But, he mused as the driver pulled to a stop in front of a rather fancy looking complex- and boy, that was so totally _not_ what he had been expecting- he'd have time to learn all those things. For now, they just had to share a tent – or room, from the looks of the fancy white building- and hope that they'd get along. This week was going to be interesting.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed! Liked it, loved it, hated it with a fiery passion? Let me know!**

**Also, is 'tailback' still a well-used word? It sounded off to me, and when I finally remembered the word 'traffic jam' (I admit, I had a little derp moment) I didn't really want to go back and look up the words to change them...**


	6. Getting settled in

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods**

**Chapter six: Getting settled in**

**Rating: T for now (if things seem more M to you lot, do tell me, okay?)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'.**

**Notes: So, I've been trying to upload this file since Sunday morning. FF wouldn't let me. Also, I think this chapter falls under the category 'meh'. I had trouble I should speed things up a little or not. As a result, it's a bit shorter than I would've liked it to be. What do you guys think? **

**Also, I'd like to thank the reviewers. Reviews kind of make my day ^^**

* * *

The Council members had shepherded the boys into the white building that looked distinctly out of place in the forest. They had told them to just grab their carry- ons and that their other luggage would be taken care of by the personnel that worked in the complex.

No sooner had the warblers entered the building, or five young men dressed in teal-coloured trousers with bright purple button- down shirts – Kurt didn't even try to hide his cringe- walked out to open the compartment of the bus where there luggage was held.

Inside, they were met by a large man with a moustache that reminded the boys of a walrus's. He had somehow managed to find a flower- patterned shirt in the same colours as his personnel were wearing. This time, Blaine – who really wasn't an authority on the subject of fashion- didn't try to hide his cringe either. The man seemed to be in a very good mood, pumping David's hand up and down in greeting and smiling one of the largest smiles Kurt had ever seen.

"Welcome, welcome! My name is Walter Cromley and I own this place. "

His voice was as jolly as he looked. Kurt silently entertained himself by picturing this man in a Santa suit for the Holidays. It seemed like something he would do. Walter continued:

"Being a former Dalton Academy Warbler myself –" Kurt _really_ couldn't picture this man clad in a Dalton uniform- "It's always a pleasure to have a current group of Warblers here. It makes things fun around here!"

Kurt looked around the group and noticed that he wasn't the only one surprised by the man's boisterous nature. Evan looked taken aback, Jason didn't seem to know what to do with himself and even Blaine looked slightly uncomfortable underneath his mask of dapperness. Wes and David – and some senior members- on the other hand, seemed to have been expecting this. The dark-skinned Council member was now shaking his arm to regain feeling in it after the very enthusiastic shaking by Walter, but he had a grin on his face that said he wouldn't have it any other way.

After having shaken the hand of every single warbler present, (Kurt was sure he'd never regain the feeling in the pinkie finger that had been crushed by the large man's hand) Walter started talking again:

"As per request of the school, your tents have already been set up- " Here, Kurt blanched. _Tents? What about this nice, dirt- free, shiny building?_ " - This building is where you can get breakfast and dinner. I've taken the liberty to set up the big-screen set in the cafeteria though, so you can do your planning – and by planning I mean _spying_, isn't that right boys?- inside. How does that sound?"

Matt – who was a bit of a computer whiz- had trouble containing his excitement. They were going to use technology to prepare for Regionals! Suddenly, he felt like they could do this. Daniel, too, looked as if he couldn't wait to start building strategies with the use of technology. Even Robin – who had managed to crash three laptops in the span of just as many months- seemed to be excited about this.

Kurt, on the other hand, wasn't as sure, but decided not to mention his doubts. _You'd think none of them had seen a computer before_. Besides, _spying_? He had thought the warblers would have been above that, with the dapper way each of them portrayed themselves. Apparently, he was mistaken.

While Kurt was mulling this over in his head, Walter's personnel came walking through the door again, apparently having dropped off a part of their luggage at the tents already. The warblers had started talking amongst themselves, while Wes was talking to Walter, talking animatedly with his hands.

Instead of taking the path outside, like they had done before, the purple and teal clad boys came through the building this time. Most of them were carrying either one or two duffel bags, but at the very end, one of them was struggling with a very familiar suitcase. Seeing this, Kurt started feeling a little hot under his collar – and boy, was he glad he had been allowed to put his own shirt back on. No offense to Cameron, or anything, but that print hadn't looked good on him _at all_- when Walter whistled a note that could mean that he was either in awe or surprise.

"Damn boys, one of you has serious packing issues."

The boy struggling with the suitcase paused for a moment, muttering a 'no shit' before moving onward again. The warbles only laughed. Bastards.

* * *

After having been shown where their tents were situated- around a campfire of course, because that was exactly how much of a cheese ball Thad was- and sleeping arrangements had been made the boys returned to the white building. Arranging who was to sleep where had been done in typical warbler- fashion. Chaos with a dash of charm and a side order of dapper- ness.

"_I claim Wes!" David had immediately called, hugging the startled Council President to his side. The boy hadn't seemed to mind much at first, but then he had frowned, saying: _

"_Did you just say you __claimed__ me?" David's grin had slid of his face incredibly fast. Having Wes's glare aimed at you tended to do that to a person. _

_Before he could stutter out an explanation however, Flint had run over to Adam, claiming he wanted a tent-mate that didn't have to pee all night long –here he had frowned in the direction of his roommate at Dalton, Jason, who had a bladder condition and did indeed need to get up at all hours of the night to use the bathroom- and Cameron had put Robin in a headlock, claiming that he wanted to share a tent with his Dalton roomie, just to see if the experience would be different in nature. Robin- who had been trying to get out of the headlock- had not been impressed._

_Kurt had looked on all this with a sense of trepidation. He really didn't care who he had to share his tent with, as long as the guy didn't snore. Blaine hadn't cared much either. In the end, Wes had wrestled himself away from David and had slammed his gavel –_ wait, where did that thing come from….where had he been hiding that?- _down on the nearest tree trunk. _

_The warblers – and this had included Geoffrey and Trent, who had been in the middle of a thumb war to determine which of them would room with Daniel- had fallen silent almost immediately, already having been trained to fear the wrath of Wes and his gavel a long time ago._

"_No need to drag this affair out," the Council President had said," Everyone rooms with the person they room with at Dalton. End of discussion. Flint, put Adam down. You're rooming with Jason. I'm serious, Flint. Put. The boy. Down."_

_While Wes was trying to release Adam from Jason's hold, Kurt turned to Blaine. The look on his face was incredulous, while Blaine's seemed to be resigned. Even though Blaine had already nodded at Kurt's unasked question, the newest warbler just had to ask it anyway:_

"_He brought the Gaga-damned Gavel?"_

_Blaine had just nodded again, letting out a long- suffering sigh._

They were now gathered around a few of the tables in the building's cafeteria, waiting to hear what the Council had to say. Thad said a few words about how he hoped the team- because that's what they were, he had said, not just a bunch of songbirds, but a team- would come closer together during this Seclusion and David talked about how much he hoped that this week would help them kick their competition's asses at Regionals.

Then Wes took the floor, pulling out a stack of papers that he started to hand out. Looking down on his sheet of paper, Kurt noticed that it was a schedule. Of course. The boy had brought his gavel and had nearly had a fit when their bus ride turned out to be longer than planned. Of course he would have planned out the entire week.

Kurt mentally muted Wes's walkthrough of the schedule in his head, instead choosing to wonder about how New Directions was preparing for Regionals –he'd put money on them not even having started yet- , how his new roommate would turn out to be like, and most importantly of all: How to separate Wes from that horrible gavel.

* * *

**What are your thoughts?**

**If you're wondering about the lack of music; there will be songs next chapter, I think. Still haven't really decided on which ones, though. If you've got a great song idea, do let me know!**


	7. No rest this Sunday

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods**

**Chapter seven: No rest this Sunday**

**Rating: T for now (if things seem more M to you lot, do tell me, okay?)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'.**

**Notes: Thank you for the reviews! Chloe-88, you do realise, you're my no.1 reviewer, right? :P**

**Here, we briefly meet Harry. And there is music, yay.**

* * *

"So, I've got a question for you."

Kurt turned his head sideways, toothbrush sticking out from between his lips. His hair had already been modelled into shape before he had left his –admittedly very nice- tent to face the day. He was wearing a pair of light blue skin- tight jeans and a green shirt that probably hadn't come from the men's wear side of whichever store Kurt had bought the shirt from.

Kurt removed the toothbrush from his mouth and looked at the boy standing at the sink next to his. Ugh, public bathrooms were _so_ not his scene, no matter what some gay celebrities got up to in their spare time. Something told him that George Michael hadn't needed to be woken up after his 'companion' _went, went…._if you catch his drift.

Just the feeling that you were being watched because of all the excess mirrors and stalls was enough to set the –admittedly sparse- hairs on his arm upright under normal circumstances, but being forced to share a bathroom with eighteen –nineteen when his new roommate gets there- people he vaguely knew and even some he considered his friends was enough to have him almost running back to the relative safety of his tent.

What if some of the boys had weird, or even disgusting bathroom habits? What if one of them didn't even wash their hands after using the toilet? He wouldn't be able to look that warbler in the eye ever again without thinking about the fact that there could be millions of different bacteria on the boy's hands. Or worse; what if things he did in the bathroom would make the other boys uncomfortable?

Sure, Blaine hadn't run away screaming when he'd found out about Kurt's moisturizing rituals, but Blaine was _different_. Blaine sort of understood. Plus, Blaine wouldn't dare say anything about Kurt's rituals after the newest Warbler found out about the fact that the curly- haired soloist loved getting facials just as much as the next gay guy. Which would be Kurt, incidentally. And he had the pictures to prove it.

Still, he didn't want to make these boys uncomfortable with the way he cared about his appearance. Not only because he had to spend the rest of the week in close quarters with them, but also because he just wanted to be able to get along with them without being 'that gay kid' again. Sure, the warblers were very nice to him and Blaine –and he suspected Jeff wasn't as straight as he looked either- in school, but that was _in school_. Where that beautiful thing called a zero- tolerance policy was in effect. Kurt didn't know the school rules by heart, but he was sure the policy was only in effect inside the school and its grounds, not in a forest three hundred kilometres away from it. So far the boys hadn't shown signs of being two-faced homophobic pricks, but Kurt hadn't survived William McKinley High School without a healthy dose of paranoia.

Still, it was best to give them all the benefit of the doubt and hope they were the exact same way outside of Dalton as they were inside of it. He kind of liked them like that. So, he gave the Warbler with the russet skin tone and the enormous afro a once over – hiding his cringe at the horrible clothing the boy was clad in- and said:

"Ask away", before popping his toothbrush back in his mouth. Oral hygiene was important after all. Not that he'd mind having to see Dr. Howell again –_because he didn't mind. At all.- _but he liked his teeth to be in perfect shape, just like every other part of his body.

"You've got a lot of hair- stuff and shit with you right?", Trent asked with a slightly embarrassed grin on his face. Kurt removed the toothbrush for the final time, spit out the remainder of the toothpaste lather in the sink in the least disgusting way and rinsed out his mouth, before straightening and answering:

"I do, in fact brought a lot of hair- stuff and _shit_, Mark. Why?"

"Well, I, you see I kind of, oh this is so embarrassing," the warbler stuttered out, studiously avoiding the gaze of the rosy- cheeked boy in front of him (not to mention ignoring the looks Robin and Edward were shooting him from their own sinks) . At last, he seemed to make a decision and crouched down, so Kurt could see his hair from above. "Just look at it."

The startled gasp the lithe warbler let out did nothing to relieve the embarrassment Trent was feeling. From somewhere to his left he could hear Robin's unmistakable snort, followed by his not- so- manly _at all_ guinea pig –like laughter. Thankfully, Kurt seemed to understand the gravity of the situation and made an effort not to laugh. Or so Trent assumed. In reality, Kurt was to shocked to do anything but stare.

For there, hiding somewhere beneath all those layers of 'fro, one could clearly see an assortment of things you wouldn't normally expect to see hiding in someone's hair. This included some wads of paper and grass –Kurt flashed back to the day before, where he had seen Trent's struggle with his hair on the bus to remove said items- parts of a comb, a bundled up hairband and what probably was the reason for the boy's distress: A watch. Kurt heaved a heavy sigh and pulled up his sleeves. He had his work cut out for him.

* * *

When Kurt and Trent (and Jeff, who had run in on the proceedings ten minutes in, waving his camera around and asking if he had missed a vital part of the 'hair- operation') were finally ready to head down to breakfast an hour later, they were met with a standing ovation from the rest of the warblers, who had decided to wait with eating until they were complete.

Trent –whose hair looked noticeably smaller since Kurt had taken out a pair of scissors after having partially given up- sat down next to Flint, who patted the top of Trent's 'fro with an awed look on his face. Kurt plopped down next to Blaine, as usual.

Halfway through their breakfast, Walter Cromley came walking through the door, making small talk with several of the campers gathered in the room, before waving at the warblers like mad and climbing up on the makeshift stage that was set up next to the big screen.

"Good morning campers. As always, here I am with the announcements for the day. First of all, I'd like to remind you of the fact that the pool will close early today because of maintenance work. Don't fret, though. The lake's always open, haha!", he said, laughing a belly- shaking laugh that made Kurt think back to the Santa- comparison he had made in his head the night before.

Walter continued: "Next, I'd like to give a special welcome to the Warblers, of the Dalton Academy School for Boys in Westerville. They're here for the week, to prepare for a big competition, so don't be surprised if you hear music at odd times of the day, it's just this group of talented young men bursting in to song. Come on, boys. Let them see you!"

The boys reluctantly put down their forks (David even whimpered at being taken away from his food) and stood up to wave at the other campers. There were a lot of parents with young children, but there was also –and this pleased a large part of the show choir- a large group of people their age, presumably a high school class, which included cute girls. Kurt rolled his eyes when he saw Wes try to flatten his hair the same way he had when Santana had come to visit at Dalton. That boy really needed to get over that particular tic.

As the boys sat down to resume eating their breakfast, Walter continued:

"Also, it might be best if you avoid the green restrooms for today. I've been told there's some clogging because of excess hair. Have a good day!"

Trent turned beet red. Kurt laughed.

* * *

The rest of the morning passed by in a haze of trying to decide on a teambuilding activity to do (About half an hour into this discussion, Thad had realised that doing such an activity would be useless, since they weren't all there yet.) and singing together. They hadn't sung together since the practise Santana had disturbed, because they had cancelled Friday's practise to go home and pack their stuff.

"Warblers, listen up," Wes called over the low hum of conversations, hitting his beloved gavel on the nearest tree. Nick gave the wooden thing a death glare. "Today we're just going to have fun, and we'll leave the actual planning for tomorrow, when we're all here, all right?"

The boys all nodded, so Wes continued: "Who's got a fun song to sing? Don't be shy, it doesn't even have to be entirely appropriate, there's no one around anyway."

_Oh dear, he shouldn't have said that_, Kurt thought as he saw the mischievous grin spread on Flint's face. The tall Warbler stood up from where he was sat on the ground, muttering instructions into a few of the boys' ears. Judging by the grins on their faces, this was either going to be brilliant, or embarrassing. Or possibly both.

As the boys Flint had whispered instructions to, began to beat box to conjure up a recognisable melody and Flint himself took on a ridiculous thug- pose, Kurt felt like hiding his face in his hands. There's no way Flint was going to-

"_I like big butts and I cannot lie, you other brothers can't deny that when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face…"_

Okay, so he was. Flint was actually singing 'Baby got Back'.

"_You get sprung, wanna pull out your tough, 'cause you notice that butt was stuffed, deep in the jeans she's wearing, I'm hooked and I can't stop staring, oh baby, I wanna get with you, and take your picture, my homeboys tried to warn me, but that butt you got makes me so-"_

Here, Flint made a scandalised sound and put his hand over his mouth, presumable to pretend that he was ashamed of the word that had threatened to come out. Kurt couldn't control his giggle.

As Flint got more and more into the song, he began pulling boys up to get them to dance. At one point, he even slapped David's butt, making Kurt flash back to New Direction's first public performance and how shocked Finn had looked when he had slapped his butt.

When the performance came to an end, Kurt's butt had been made an example of as well, and Flint had had a bit too much fun singing about his 'anaconda'. As the boys sat down, David piped up:

"That has got to be the _whitest_ I've ever heard this song."

* * *

The rest of the day was spent singing songs and doing vocal exercises. After David had finished his heart felt rendition of Taylor Swift's 'Our song' and Thad had finished jamming out to Nicklebacks' 'Feeling way too damn good', both still trying to determine which would be a better choice to cover for Regionals, they decided it was time to go to dinner.

Nearing the end of dinner, Jeff and Matthew excused themselves to go set up the big screen and the computer for their round of 'reconnaissance' of the evening. Basically, they were going to spy on their rival glee clubs by looking at footage of their performances. Jeff was using the time the boys took to eat the last of their dinner to upload the pictures he had taken so far to the Warbler's facebook page, sniggering ever so often.

After dinner and well into their spying session, the doors to the room creaked open (Walter really needed to have someone check that out, that noise was just plain eerie) and the boys –curious little kittens, the lot of them- turned around to see a young man their age in the doorway, a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. His dark hair had a windswept look and his eyes were not only a beautiful green colour, but they were also…widening?

Indeed, they were widening, which is not all that odd when you take into account the blonde warbler that was running at him at full speed before throwing himself at the newcomer. Jeff clung to the boys back, hugging the life out of him.

"Hiya Harry! How are you? Did you miss me? You did, didn't you? I can totally tell! You missed me! I missed you too, Harebear!"

The other warblers were trying to contain their not- so- manly giggles and muffled their snorts by standing up and walking over to the newcomer. Curious as he was, and having deduced that this was to be his new roommate, Kurt followed. After having shaken Jeff off of his back, the boy straightened up and returned all of the boys' happy greetings. When he came to Kurt, he said:

"You must be my new roommate! Thad told me about you on the phone yesterday. Hi, I'm Harry."

With a "Hi, I'm Kurt," Kurt stuck out his hand to be shaken, slightly confused by the tug he had felt in his stomach upon hearing the boy's British accent, but Harry would have none of that. Instead of shaking his hand, he picked his roommate up and twirled him around, ending his impromptu dance with Kurt hanging bridal style in his arms and hanging on for dear life while desperately trying to get his hair back the way it was.

About five minutes later, the boys decided to call an end to the meeting and head back to their tents, where Harry was given the number of the tent he'd be sharing with Kurt so he could put down his bag. While the boys gathered around the campfire for an evening of telling ghost stories (at Evan's insistence), Harry came back with a confused expression on his face.

"Oi, Wes! Thanks for showing me where you keep all the supplies and stuff, but I kind of want to put my bag in my tent."

The Warblers burst out laughing. Kurt turned red. He was never going to live this down, was he?

* * *

**So, what did you think?**


	8. Up close and just a little too personal

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods.**

**Chapter eight: Up close and just a little too personal**

**Rating: T for now (I don't think it'll become M, actually)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC, Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'. **

**NOTES: I'm so, so **_**so**_** sorry it took me so long! I hid a sort of block, not knowing how to write this scene, but also obsessively wanting to have it in here. So, it's late and shorter than usual, but it's here. Finally. I promise the next update won't be so far away.**

**Also, thanks again for the lovely reviews and hits and favourites and alerts and reccings and and and…just thank you^^ Oh, and I got PM'd about my OC's being borrowed for fics. I personally don't think my OC's are all that special yet, but if you want to use them, it's fine by me. Just send me a link to the story, cause I'd like to read that :P Same goes for artwork. I love artwork. Again, just send me the link ^^**

* * *

Waking up the next morning was a bit of an experience. Because Kurt's suitcase took up lot of space, he and his new roommate had put it to the side of the tent, with Harry's duffel bag next to it. This meant that their sleeping bags were right next to each other, so close they were touching. Not a big deal, you'd think, but apparently Harry moved around a lot in his sleep. This was evidenced by the way they were lain when they woke up.

Kurt was flat on his back, pushed almost entirely against the canvas of the tent. Harry had somehow managed to angle his body in such a way that his upper body lay outside of his sleeping bag and on top of Kurt's chest. His left arm was wrapped snuggly around Kurt's waist, and he had his head nestled underneath Kurt's chin. Apparently, he was also a cuddler.

Normally, Kurt would lie there for a few moments longer, basking in the feeling of literally sleeping with an attractive boy. Now, however, Kurt really, really needed to pee.

Deciding that dealing with his bladder took precedence over cuddling with – and potentially freaking out- his new roommate, Kurt carefully tried to extract himself from Harry's grip. This turned out to be a fruitless exercise however, when he tried to move his head away from Harry's, and the boy retaliated by simply snuggling closer into his chest and slipping his other arm underneath Kurt's back- which had been slightly lifted from the ground-, effectively holding him in a very comfortable hug.

Kurt held still for a moment, deciding that he didn't mind being Harry's teddy bear _at all._ Still, he quietly unzipped his sleeping bag and released first one leg, then the other when it proved to be successful. He managed to slide on top of the bag. Stage one complete. He sighed, looking down on the sleeping figure. Time for stage two.

* * *

"Blaine, Blaine, wake up! Wake up, Blaine! Come on man, you really don't want to miss this!"

Two tents away from Kurt and Harry, Jeff was desperately trying to wake Blaine, camera already in hand. Unfortunately, Blaine was one of the heaviest sleepers he had ever met. If you forget about Geoffrey, that is.

"Come on, Blaine, now's not the time to practise your sloth impersonation."

He shook his shoulder, yanked the sleeping bag open, pulled on his feet and made several threats, but Blaine just wouldn't wake. Jeff was starting to get a little impatient. He was missing a glorious photo- opportunity here. Time for a last ditch attempt.

"Hey… isn't that Johnny Depp over there?"

Exactly like Jeff had hoped he would, Blaine shot upright in his sleeping bag, desperately trying to get the curls away from his eyes so he could see.

"Where, where? Where is he Jeff?"

The slightly manic twinkle in his eyes and the fact that the boy had apparently kept an unsigned poster of Johnny Depp in his bag – as evidenced by the fact that he had now pulled it out, holding a sharpie victoriously in his other hand- just in case the actor ever showed up in his tent (and really, what _were_ the chances of that happening?) caused Jeff to pause momentarily, before cautiously answering:

"Nowhere Blaine. I just needed you awake. I'm missing a brilliant photo opportunity in Kurt's tent because your dapper ass is blocking the doorway. Now let me out!"

Bemused – and more than just a bit disappointed- Blaine rolled away from the doorway and set about making himself look halfway presentable while Jeff rushed out of the tent, preparing the camera as he went. It only took a few seconds for Jeff's words and actions to seep through Blaine's sleep- addled mind, and he too shot out of the tent, pulling on a pair of jeans as he went tumbling out of it.

A group of wildly laughing Warblers had already gathered around the tent when Blaine got there. He could distinctly hear the sound of the shutter of Jeff's camera as the blonde boy probably shot picture after picture. Pushing himself through the group of easily parting boys a bit, he heard the two boys in the tent bickering with each other.

"Will you just get off of me?"

"I'm trying here, Kurt, no need to get snippy."

"Snippy? Snippy? You're not the one who woke up being smothered by a freaking…cuddlemonster! Don't you call me snippy, mister!"

"Cuddlemonster, really?"

"You know you are! How on earth did you get your foot there anyway?"

"I don't know, maybe the same way your ankles are in my frigging neck?...you're awfully bendy by the way."

"Oh, shut it Potier. Just get us untangled."

"Me? I'm pretty sure this was your fault somehow."

"How could this be _my_ fault? _You _attacked _me_ in my sleep!"

"Oh, who cares? Just get us and these bloody sleeping bags loose!"

By the time Blaine made it to the front of the crowd of laughing teenage boys, the bickering had slowed down a bit. By the time he was somewhere he could actually look into the tent, the two boys had apparently gotten themselves separated and were looking at each other with red cheeks, breathing heavily, looking quite dishevelled. He could distinctly see Harry's lips twist a little in what would have probably been a disarming smile, had the glare on Kurt's face not nixed it.

All of a sudden, it seemed like Harry couldn't hold it in anymore, and he let out a loud guffaw, laughing louder at the look of complete bewilderment on Kurt's face. His laughter was so infectious, even Kurt joined in after a little while, the absurdity of the situation probably catching up to him. That is, until Harry uttered the words none of the other Warblers would have dared to say:

"Nice hair, Kurt."

Kurt's laughter ceased immediately, his hand flying to his awful bed-/ tumble hair, his face morphing into a frown, a snarling return comment most likely at the tip of his tongue.

Blaine decided it was probably wise to leave now, and get some breakfast. He dapperly speed walked away from the tent, trying to make it look like he was _not_ afraid of the miniature war that was likely to break out inside that tent, and booked it to the dining hall, where most of the other boys had already gathered.

He took a seat next to Jeff, who was busy transferring the pictures to the laptop that came with the 'spy- kit' –as some of the geekier Warblers affectionately called it- and shovelling cereal in his mouth at record speed.

"Booked it out of there too, huh?" the blonde asked between bites. Blaine only nodded, glancing at the pictures from the corners of his eyes, internally cackling at the worth of the potential blackmail material he could get out of it. Suddenly something popped into his mind.

"Hey Jeff?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you really call my ass 'dapper', or was I having weird dreams again?"

Jeff almost spat out the milk- soaked cereal, but managed to play it cool.

"Dreams, definitely."

* * *

**Remember, I'd love to hear your thoughts an it ^^ Until next time!**


	9. A very McKinley interlude

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods.**

**Chapter nine: A very McKinley interlude**

**Rating: T for now (I don't think it'll become M, actually)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC, Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'. **

**NOTES: Hi all! Thanks for the many hits and favourites and alerts and the sweet single review. Also thanks for the PMs. Wouldn't it be much more efficient though to post a review? I get notifications on those, so you'll get an answer faster if you want one…**

**Once again: this is not beta'ed. Any spelling and grammar mistakes are a direct result of my general laziness in correcting it. Thanks, that's all. Enjoy ^^**

* * *

"Where's Mr Schue?"

"I don't know, but I hope he'll be here soon. If I have to hear Man-hands go off on _another _speech about how she's the only viable choice to sing a solo at Regionals, I'm going to strangle the ugly little hobbit."

"Santana, really. Must you?"

"Yeah, Quinn. And don't deny you want it too. I know what you look like when you're about five seconds away from flipping your shit."

"….can't argue with that."

In the choir room at William McKinley High, New Directions was gathered. In front of the room, Rachel Berry –loud- mouth and diva extraordinaire- was indeed speaking of her own virtues on stage. In the chairs on the other side of the room, no one was listening to her.

Santana Lopez – Head Bitch and confused duckling- and Quinn Fabray – Former Head Bitch and aspiring Prom Queen- were doing what they did best; Make fun of Rachel. Next to them, Mike Chang – man of rubber and Super- Asian- was trying to teach Finn Hudson –Frankenteen and Mr. Two Left Feet- a few simple dance moves. _Trying_ being the operative word here.

In the row beneath them, Noah Puckerman – Self- proclaimed Ambadassador and love- struck fool- was desperately trying to woo Lauren Zizes – Female wrestler and voted as least likely to win Prom Queen-, and failing, miserably. Next to them, Tina Cohen-Chang – teen goth and apparent daughter of an evil vampire overlord- was discretely trying to teach Sam – Fishlips and Lemonhead- how to do a better job on dying his hair.

In the bottom row, Brittany Pierce – Class- ditz and cat- enthusiast- was seated in Artie Abrams'- Wheels and the whitest rapper you'll ever find- lap, being so disgustingly cute that one latina Glee member had trouble to keep from glaring. Not that _that_ took much these days. Next to the two lovebirds sat Mercedes Jones- Tots- lover and one hell of a diva-, texting someone on her phone.

Right when Santana and Quinn –for once agreeing on something- were planning on staging a coup, their missing choir director came speed-walking into the room, an agitated look on his face.

"Sorry I'm late guys. Rachel, could you please take your seat?"

Gradually, the glee members fell silent and Rachel took a seat next to Mercedes with obvious displeasure. Noticing the look on her choir director's face however, she too stopped talking and waited to hear what he had to say.

"Thanks. It , er , seems like we've got a little situation on our hands," Will Schuester said, clearly having some sort of issue with whatever was bothering him, and would probably bother the rest of them soon, too.

"What kind of situation, Mr Schue?" Mercedes asked, tearing her eyes away from the text she had just received from her bestie, Kurt, wherein he claimed to be surrounded by idiots.

Before Mr Schue could answer though, the choir room door opened to reveal the school's principal, Principal Figgins, and the football coach, Shannon Beiste standing in the doorway, blocking the view of the hallway.

Puck, not trusting this one bit, spoke up: "What's going on, Mr Schue?"

"Let me handle this, William," Figgins said in his peculiar accent, not moving from his spot at the door, making more than a few glee members narrow their eyes in suspicion.

"Last Friday this school was vandalised with the use of hundreds of paint pallets and a confetti cannon."

Here he stopped, letting them remember the reason why they had had last Friday off from school, before carrying on:

"Because we cannot let this act slip by, I decided these culprits need to be punished. What better way to do so than by having them do something they don't want to do? Last time, they even became slightly better people, I think-"

"Oh hell no!," Mercedes interrupted, comprehension dawning on her. "Mr Schue, tell me he ain't saying what I think he's saying!"

"I'm sorry Mercedes," Mr Schue responded, looking like he actually was and shaking his head a little. "But…."

Here the principal interrupted once more: "Welcome your new members!"

Here he stepped to the side, motioning coach Beiste to do the same, revealing the entire football team not in Glee crowded in the hallway.

To call what happened next 'chaos', would be more than a bit of an understatement.

* * *

"Mr Schue," Rachel started, not even caring about the state of disarray her hair and clothing were in, "You can't be serious! We're preparing for Regionals, we can't have them in here to ruin our chances at going to Nationals. We're talking about New York here, Mr Schue. Broadway, the Big Apple! I refuse to miss out on my chance to go there!"

Agreeing with this statement, the other members of New Directions had their eyes locked on their choir director. All that is, except for Puck, who was busy making "I'm watching you" signals at the football team, who were being chastised by both Figgins and their coach.

"Yeah," Finn chimed in, "Besides, wasn't it the hockey team that paint- balled the school?"

A chorus of 'yeah's drifted from the group, to which Mr Schue responded: "It seems that a few of the football players had the foresight to plant paint in the lockers of some of the hockey players, making it look like they did it. Unfortunately for them though, one of them started bragging about it and was overheard by the wrong people."

Seeing the displeased looks on the faces of his students, he sighed.

"Look guys, I'm not happy about this either. We have to place at Regionals this year if we still want to have a glee club next year. Going to Nationals sounds great, of course, but we need to focus on Regionals first. The team will be here during every practise, helping out and helping with ideas, judging performances and maybe even joining some of them, but they won't be on stage with us at Regionals. They'll have to watch it though, be it in the audience or on a live feed."

Noticing that some of his students looked confused- here, he didn't count Brittany seeing as he was used to seeing that expression on her face- he elaborated:

"From Regionals on, the performances are being broadcast on regional television. Nationals will be broadcast on E! Entertainment. It's only the third time this is being done, so it's still in its baby-phase, but Nationals had over seven million viewers last year. A few of which were talent scouts that contacted some of the performers they saw on television. Think about this for a second."

It was like he had told them Christmas had come early. The look in Finn's eyes was dopey, like in those of many of them. The look in Rachel's eyes was just plain scary. He rasped his throat, ready to continue.

"If the football team decides not to join us in the audience at Regionals, they'll have to watch it in the auditorium. April apparently included a big screen with internet connection in the Pavilion that she never told me about until last week."

Here, Artie –ever the AV nerd- spoke up: "Really, that's so dope! Can we go check it out Mr Schue?"

"We will in just a few minutes, Artie, hang on," Mr Schue answered, looking over to where the coach and the principal were just about done with chastising the team. "It looks like they're almost done over there."

And indeed, a few minutes wherein the glee kids excitedly chattered about how they'd be on television and about how they didn't know this before and if they could get that footage somewhere later, Figgins left the room and coach Beiste shepherded the team over to the rest. She spoke in her no- nonsense voice:

"Listen up, team! These twelve glee kids are your new team! You know them, you've worked with them once before. You will _not_, I repeat, will _not_ get in their way. You will help them. You will be their new best friends. You will cheer for them, give constructive criticism- if you don't know what that is Azimio, I suggest you look it up. Fast.- and make it as easy as possible for them. They're preparing for one of the biggest competition's they'll go to. Let them have it."

With that, she practically shooed them towards the glee kids, before tipping an imaginary hat at Mr Schue and leaving, leaving behind a group that obviously didn't know what to do with each other.

Santana managed to sum the whole thing up brilliantly:

"Well, this is going to be fun."

* * *

**So, what did you think?**


	10. A day of bonding Warbler style

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods.**

**Chapter ten: A day of bonding….Warbler- style.**

**Rating: T for now (I don't think it'll become M, actually)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC, Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'. **

**NOTES: Thanks again for all the alerts and favourites and the lovely review! I've discovered that reviews are like crack to me….but healthier. I hope.**

* * *

"So, today was fun, huh?"

Kurt looked up at the voice that sounded a little too close by. When he turned his face to the side, he almost came nose to nose with his new roommate. Harry, noticing this made him uncomfortable, made a small step back, so that he was at a more respectable distance from him.

Kurt shook his head, not really believing his new roommate could have found today _fun_. Looking down at his clothing he sighed. He should've listened when his dad had told him to pack comfortable clothes he wouldn't mind getting dirty. Truth was, he didn't really have any of those. If you didn't count the coveralls he wore when he helped his father out in the shop, that is. No way in Gucci –less hell that any of the Dalton boys would ever see him in those, though.

"I'm sorry, I must have heard you wrong. Did you say _fun_?"

Harry grinned. "Of course!"

"Oh really now?" Kurt asked, an eyebrow rising up to nearly meet his hairline. "And what, pray tell, was so fun about this day?"

"What wasn't?" the Brit smiled, excitedly. "We got to sleep in a bit-"

"And then woke up all tangled up, nearly choking each other. I'm sure I've got bruises from that."

"- Alright, that's true. I think you might've hit my neck a bit too hard with your heel, but that doesn't matter. After waking up, we had a great breakfast-"

"Interrupted by Jeff's trigger- happy camera fingers, making pictures of each bite _everyone_ took and Trent complaining about having to give up his hair products because I refuse to go searching for treasure in that 'do ever again."

"-Yeah, but that was funny. For us at least, you looked like you were ready to kill. Besides, did you see the look on Blaine's face when Trent spoke of his hair products?"

Kurt let out a short giggle, then stopped abruptly, not wanting to believe he just _giggled_ like the eleven year old girl he really was on the inside.

"Yeah, he looked just a bit too sympathetic to Trent's plight. I sense a story there. Besides, I'm going to make Blaine get rid of his gel if it's the last thing I do…after getting rid of that idiotic gavel of Wes', of course."

The look of mirth slipped off of Harry's face almost immediately, to be replaced by a more serious look. "You might want to leave Wes' Angie alone. He locked David out of their room for two weeks straight when David had gotten fed up with the gavel- banging- business and hid it. He wasn't allowed back in his room until he gave the rotten thing back."

Kurt's left eyebrow rose again. "That thing has a name?"

"Of course it does. Wes names _everything_. The gavel started out as Miss Bang Bang, but that creeped some of the Warblers out more than the gavel banging did, so he renamed her as 'Bangie', which later became 'Angie'. '

Kurt didn't say anything for a few moments, his mouth opening and closing, but no sound coming out of it. In the end, he just said: "That's just sad."

"I know, right? Anyways, where were we?"

"You had just finished trying to convince me of the awesomeness of breakfast," Kurt answered.

"Right! Then afterwards we had that awesome teambuilding activity-"

"You mean the one where we had to scale down a rocky hill before landing in the midst of a paintball war and trying to survive without too many bruises and paint stains?" Kurt added, dryly.

"That's the one!" Harry grinned, "And then we had lunch, of course-"

"During which Jeff took some more pictures, making Evan afraid to take bites of his food, and Geoffrey fell asleep again while Daniel decided to be the musical accompaniment to the meal by doing a reprise of every single annoying song he sang during the bus ride over."

"Well, I wasn't there for the bus ride, so I wasn't too bothered."

"Lucky you."

"I know. Anyways, then we had the meeting to decide song selections. That was fun, you can't deny that."

Kurt didn't look impressed.

"Would that have been before or after David and Thad got into _another_ dispute about whether they should cover Taylor Swift or Nickelback and David made the mistake of comparing Swift to Katy Perry and Blaine going all diva on him?"

"Oh, right." Harry paused. "I suppose I forgot about that."

"How in the name of Prada's spring collection can you forget that? Matthew nearly wet himself laughing, Nick kept cheering for Blaine, Thad hid underneath the table, Wes disappeared clutching that damn wooden monstrosity, Jeff got trigger happy again and David cowered in fear of Blaine's righteous anger!"

"Exactly," Harry grinned. "Just imagine what those pictures are going to look like."

Kurt couldn't help himself, he really couldn't. He laughed, in a very masculine and modest way mind, looking at his roommate while imagining the hilarious pictures that would probably end up online very soon. As if he read his mind, Harry said:

"Ten bucks says those pictures will be online by the time we get to bed."

"No bet," Kurt scoffed. "Something tells me Jeff probably put them on the Warbler site right after dinner."

"You're probably right," Harry said, still grinning and seemingly unable to stop doing so. "I can't wait to see those pictures."

"Me neither."

After a few moments of comfortable silence – and wow, Kurt hadn't known he could have a comfortable silence with anyone but his dad, Blaine and Mercedes, so this was a pleasant surprise- Harry spoke.

"And then of course, came dinner."

"Don't even get me started on dinner," Kurt said shortly. He looked up when Harry let out a snort.

"Oh please, Kurt, dinner was hilarious."

Dinner for them had coincided with dinner for the other high school group that was staying there at the moment. Having seen the group of laughing and eating Warblers, most of the girls in that group had flocked to them, pulling up chairs and joining them, some even going as far as batting their eyelashes.

"_Ooh, incoming!", Adam had whispered, shooting a knowing glance at Wes, who had been busy flattening his hair at the approach of the girls. Kurt had looked up from his soup – the only low- fat meal on the menu- to share a glance with Blaine, who made a '_run-for-your-life-or-virginity'_- face. Kurt had nearly snorted his soup out through his nose at that look, and one of the girls had noticed, immediately sitting down next to him. Kurt had halted his movements, face stuck in '_oh- shit_'- mode. _

"_Hi," the girl had chirped from beside him, "I'm Julie."_

_Kurt had looked at her, not really knowing what to do, acutely aware of the coughs the Warblers around him used to –badly- hide their laughter. He had looked at Blaine but saw he was too busy pretending not to laugh to care. His new roommate had looked okay, but had had a twinkle in his eyes that said he was enjoying this immensely. The rest of the Warblers hadn't seemed like they'd be much help either. In the end, Kurt had just swallowed his soup and said: _

"_Kurt."_

_He would have said more, but he was sure that the next thing that would come out of his mouth would be a scathing remark about the ridiculous hairband in her hair and how it clashed horribly with her shoes._

"_You're, like one of those singers from that school, right?"_

_His first instinct had been to say : 'No, I just joined them for fun these last few days, and boy, did we have oodles of that!', but when he had looked at her, he had seen her twirl a lock of hair around her finger while looking at him intently. He had been able to feel his eyes widen and had heard the distinctive sound of Blaine losing his cool and snorting out a laugh._

"_Uhu", he had just said instead._

"_That's so cool," shehad continued, peppy as ever, "Could you maybe sing me a song?"_

"_I'm kinda eating right now," had been his short answer._

_To say that things got better from that point on would have been a lie. The girl had kept pushing herself at him while the rest of the Warblers had pretended they didn't notice or were busy laughing about it, or even flirting with a few girls themselves. Kurt had noticed that while one girl did go up to Harry, he had merely waved her away, intent on following the spectacle that was Kurt vs. Oblivious Girl._

_At the end of dinner, when the girl was practically in his lap, Kurt just gave up and let her at it. If she wanted to pretend that the most feminine boy at the table of an all boy _show choir_ was straight, then he wasn't going to burst her bubble. He had left with her phone number, a flirty wink in his direction, and a brief kiss on the cheek._

Kurt couldn't help but grin with Harry. Okay, in a way it had been kind of funny. No way he was going to admit that to his new roommate, though.

"Okay, Harry. I think you've made your point. You had a fun day. Now let's go before they drag us out of here."

"Sure thing," Harry grinned, holding the tent flap open. "I can't believe we get to tell ghost stories around a campfire! It's going to be even more fun, I bet."

"Speak for yourself," Kurt responded, stepping out of the tent and smiling at the childish glee on his roommate's face. "I know I'm going to be too scared to sleep tonight."

"You will be after the story I'm going to tell," Harry smirked, closing the tent flap behind them. "It's a true story about how I woke up one morning after the best night's sleep in _months_ and all of a sudden there's a fire spitting, hairspray breathing diva yelling at me! Horrendous, I tell you."

As they walked towards the campfire, Kurt smacked his roommate lightly against the arm, unable to stop from smiling, but still feeling like he needed to keep up the act.

"Jerk."

* * *

**I've been thinking. Would you like to see more McKinley interludes or characters? 'Cause I think it could use some… Let me know, 'kay?**


	11. The Golden Berry

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods.**

**Chapter eleven: The Golden Berry**

**Rating: T for now (I don't think it'll become M, actually)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC, Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'. **

**NOTES: I'm sorry for the delay. As I posted on my profile page – do other people beside me actually check those out, by the way?- I needed all my creative writing for University for a while. I've finished my portfolio now though, and I'm back :P For next time, if anyone wonders what's taking so long, check my profile page. I tend to update on there.**

**Also: Thanks for the lovely response to last chapter! Again there were a number of alerts and favourites added and I got a record amount of reviews for one chapter; four! Briliant! Thanks a lot you guys. Seeing alerts and favourites and –especially- reviews never cease to make my day!**

* * *

"…the Filipino girl screamed, never having come across such horror before," Kurt finished his tale, a flashlight being held under his chin by Jeff. The blonde Warbler looked on in fascination at the exciting tale the newest Warbler was telling them, the hand not occupied with the flashlight taking pictures.

"For the poor, little, unsuspecting Filipino girl with the pink Hello Kitty bag realised in that moment that the world was a cold, dark, filthy place indeed," Kurt continued, the group of boys hanging on to his every word.

"Because she realised…." Here, he smirked evilly, "That she had been sent to a _crack house_."

"No!", the boys around him gasped in horror. Cameron looked like he was scared out of his wits.

Kurt nodded. "True story." He continued: "And till this day, no one is sure why she does what she does. But one thing is for certain: The Golden Berry will strike again."

Harry looked at his roommate in awe. The story he had just told sounded so _real_ and hit so close to home for them. Jealousy, selfishness, and rivalling show choirs? The boy had thought of everything.

At the other side of the circle, Daniel snorted. Loudly. "Yeah right, that can't have happened, it's too farfetched."

"No, no," Wes said while Kurt was looking at Daniel with his best 'Bitch, please,' expression. "I heard about that. It happened."

At the blank looks he got from the Warblers – for really, Wes didn't have _that_ many friends outside of Dalton- he elaborated, shrugging: "The Asian community is very tight."

* * *

It was during lunch the next day when the boys got a surprise they weren't happy about. Somewhere between them laughing and joking and trying to eat without spilling due to the laughter, Walter had suddenly appeared at Wes' shoulder, holding an official looking envelope.

"This came in the mail for you boys. Looked important, so I thought I'd drop it off right away," Walter said in the sudden silence. All eyes were on the envelope, each of them wondering what its contents could be.

"It's from the officials over at the Show Choir Competition Board of Representatives," Wes announced. A few boys sucked in their breath, while others paled. Could this be the letter they had been dreading, though they hadn't spoken about it? _Two_ teams winning Sectionals in the same category was unheard of, and had to be against several rules, but somehow they had done it. What if this letter announced that because of rules against it, the slightly less spectacular group in the tie would have to step down. What if it was them that would have to forfeit?

The boys waited with baited breath as Wes read the contents, Thad and David reading over his shoulders. The three boys seemed to reach the end of the letter at the same time. Thad looked as if he was very confused. David looked pale. Wes did something very uncharacteristic of him; he cursed.

"We're _screwed_," he muttered.

"Well? What does it say?" Blaine asked, moving to look over Wes's shoulder as well, but being pushed away a bit by Thad, who got a mouthful of hair gel when Blaine pushed past him.

Seeing as Wes seemed to be in too much of a shock to answer, David explained:

"We knew the tie at Sectionals would most likely have repercussions. It did, but not in the way we feared. We're still in the race to Nationals, but there have been a few changes in the programme."

He took a deep breath, and continued: "For one thing, they've changed groups around. Because of the surplus of show choirs in Ohio and the fact that we tied, therefore adding another, there'll be two Ohio round of Regionals. This means that we won't face the show choirs we had previously assumed we would have to face."

Kurt raised an eyebrow, becoming suspicious: "Wait…does that mean…?"

Thad nodded. "It means we won't be facing New Directions this round. The letter said it is because they're afraid of another tie. We'll be going up against a group from the Jane Adams Academy, and…."

Here, he couldn't finish the sentence. Neither could the other two council members. Kurt and Blaine however, had put the pieces together and simultaneously said: "Vocal Adrenaline."

The boys gasped and started talking to each other. Not only would they have to change the set list they had started on to fit the new competition, but to have Vocal Adrenaline as that competition? None of the boys were confident enough to be able to say that they thought they'd beat them.

"Excuse me, gentlemen," Thad continued, Wes still not being able to talk and making grabbing motions with his right hand, as if he was missing something vital in his hand. "I'm afraid that's not even the worst of it. We have to perform three songs instead of two now."

Here, David cut in: "The song's already been decided for us though. The Board decided that every choir would have to sing a musical number and they apparently randomly selected one for each choir."

"We're so, _so screwed_," Wes could be heard muttering.

"What's the song then?" Harry asked, moving to stand behind Kurt so he could see the council better. Kurt unconsciously moved a bit to be nearer to his body heat. No one noticed.

At these words, Wes seemed to come alive, a slightly crazed glint in his eyes.

"It doesn't matter which song it is!" He said, gesturing wildly, "Because we'll never be able to pull it off! It's a huge number with way too many instruments for us to be able to arrange and rehearse in the three- and –a- half days we have left. And if we do somehow manage to arrange the number to be a cappella _and_ to finalise and rehearse the rest of the set list, we still won't be able to do the song because none of us could do this song!"

He slouched in his chair a bit, another terribly uncharacteristic thing to do. Blaine finally managed to sidle up next to him, holding out a hand and asking if he could see it.

"Sure," Wes scoffed. "It won't fit your voice though."

The boys that were looking at Blaine saw a change come over him. He suddenly looked less weary than before, his eyes alternatingly looking between the letter and Kurt.

"I can see that Wes," he said, a smirk slowly forming on his face. "But we do have someone who can sing this."

Wes snorted, looking lost without his good posture and his gavel. "Prove it."

The rest of the Warblers perked up as Blaine's smirk seemed to get bigger.

"Fine, I will. Hey Kurt, complete this line for me, will you?"

Kurt nodded, wondering what the song could possibly be if Blaine was willing to vote him as the lead. The charming Warbler grinned, and sang:

"High on the hill was a lonely goatherd…."

Kurt suddenly grinned widely, thankful for all the long hours he said watching The Sound of Music over and over again. He finished the line: "Lei-oh-de-lei-oh-de-lei-hee-hoo!"

Wes suddenly set up straight again, the sullen posterior vanishing. Blaine grinned even wider than before and David rapidly returned to his original colour. Harry softly grabbed Kurt's shoulder, making the boy look up at him to answer his wide smile. Around them, the Warblers celebrated their save.

They were going to nail this.

* * *

**So, tell me what you thoug****ht of it ^^**


	12. It's raining Warbler men

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods.**

**Chapter ****twelve: It's raining Warbler-men.**

**Rating: T for now (I don't think it'll become M, actually)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC, Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'. **

**NOTES****: Another one? This soon? Yup. Reason why is at the bottom.**

**Also: longer than normal! Yay, or nay?**

* * *

The next day, it didn't just rain. It poured.

At around five thirty in the morning, the boys woke to a crash of lightening, shortly followed by a burst of thunder. Over the sound of the thunder and rain, Thad's voice could be heard bellowing through the megaphone Wes had packed to keep Angie the Gavel company (he affectionately called it 'Maggy'):

"_Warblers! Evacuate your tents, now! The river has tread past its banks and we're at the bottom of the slope! Take only what you need for today!"_

Kurt shot upright in his sleeping bag, noticing that Harry had once again managed to wrap himself around him (here, he ignored the visible signs that it might as well could have been the other way around, seeing as Kurt's legs were just as tangled up in Harry's as Harry's were in his) and shook his shoulder, trying to wake him up. If there was one thing he had learned these past few days it was that Harry could rival Geoffrey in the sleeping department.

"Harry! Wake up!" He shook his shoulder some more, getting a sleepy grunt in response. Harry opened his eyes in slits.

"Wazza?"

"Eloquent, Hare. Very eloquent.", Kurt responded, before the thought of all the water heading their way took over. "We need to evacuate the tents. This area is about to be flooded."

"Wait, what?" The sleepy haze was slowly disappearing from Harry's eyes.

"Exactly what I said. Now, if you're done playing Sleeping Beauty, we need to move. Now-ish."

With these words, Kurt started disentangling himself from his roommate – and why hadn't he done this before, by the way?- and grabbed a small bag from his suitcase, haphazardly filling it with both his and Harry's toiletries, cell phones and iPods (Wes would _kill_ them if they didn't have any music with them, no matter the circumstances) and grabbing some sweatpants and shirts –both Harry's, but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt Kurt- before grabbing the confused Harry and pulling him to his feet.

When both had a pair of shoes on their feet they left the tent, sealing it up before leaving it behind. Kurt looked behind him for a moment, already mourning the potential loss of his clothing, before following his roommate in running through the pouring rain. Around them the other Warblers were starting to pick up speed as well.

_Well_, Kurt though huffily as his feet pounded on the forest floor, the building complex rapidly coming in to view. _This is promising to be a __lovely__ day._

* * *

Half an hour later, the Warblers were sat in the cafeteria, a bit moody at being woken so early and soaking wet. Kurt looked up as Blaine plopped down on the chair next to him and Harry. And laughed.

Blaine of course hadn't had the time to gel down his hair and the rain had caused it to stick to his face in every which way possible. Blaine flushed a bit when he noticed what Kurt was looking at and muttered a soft 'shut up', before desperately trying to flatten his hair, and failing.

At the sound of Angie wetly hitting a table, the boys looked up. Wes was holding his Gavel, looking a bit disheartened at the less- than- satisfactory 'thump' it had produced. He quickly pulled himself together though:

"Okay, Warblers. There are two ways to look at his situation. The sucky view is that we woke two and a half hours before we wanted to and will not be able to do the drills we had booked on the army base nearby."

While a few of the boys actually looked saddened by this, Kurt just muttered: "Oh darn it," in a very sarcastic tone, faking a dejected hand movement. Next to him, Harry snorted. On his other side, Blaine hadn't even noticed because he was too busy with his hair.

"But, every cloud has its silver lining," Wes continued, "We could also see this as a chance to practise our musical number more because we have more time, and we can work out the rest of the set list and start practising that, as well."

Here, he tried to grin excitedly, but it just wasn't enough to convince the rest of them. He sighed: "Okay, guys. If you managed to grab some dry clothing before fleeing your tents, go change into them. Breakfast starts in forty- five minutes."

Harry looked at Kurt, slight panic in his eyes. Kurt just smirked and handed him one of the sets of sweats and shirts he had grabbed from Harry's clothing pile – and really, what was wrong with stacking things neatly inside bags or even a suitcase? Boys.

Harry smiled, "Thanks Kurt.", and softly squeezed his shoulder for a second before leaving the room. It took Kurt a few seconds before he was able to do the same, a goofy smile on his face.

A seat down, Blaine Anderson noticed this and wondered what that weird feeling in his stomach meant.

* * *

When Kurt walked back into the cafeteria after having changed his clothes and trying to make something of his rain- wrecked hair he immediately felt his roommate's eyes on him.

"Kurt, are those my clothes?", the green- eyed Warbler asked, a small smile on his face.

"They are," Kurt answered. "I didn't pack any sweats. Do you mind?"

Harry smiled faintly, trying not to stare at his roommate too obviously. "Of course not. You look better in them than I do, anyway."

Kurt tried his hardest not to flush, but he of course couldn't control his body like that. "Thanks then."

True to Wes' word, the Warblers practised the entire morning. By lunch time, they had worked out the exact harmonies they would use during The Lonely Goatherd, and had finally decided on doing a Pink song (Raise Your Glass) because they would never draw a victor from Thad and David's campaigning for Taylor Swift and Nickleback. This meant they had one song left to choose though, and time was slowly starting to slip away from them. They had only three days left till Regionals and they were drawing a blank.

At lunch, they were discussing what they should do about the third song, when Walter approached them.

"All I'm saying is, if we want to do something unexpected for our third number, we don't want to do Katy Perry. That's exactly what the judges and the other groups will expect!"

"Trent's right, Blaine. We need to think outside of the bubbly pop numbers we usually work with."

Faced with both David and Trent as his opposition, Blaine conceded.

"Fine," he said. "But then I vote for another musical number, they won't expect it."

While Thad seemed to seriously be considering this, Daniel spoke up: "We could do 'The Wheels On The Bus', they won't be expecting that either!"

Walter managed to sneak up on them while the boys were busy rolling their eyes and hiding grins at Daniel's awful music tastes.

"Afternoon boys! How's it going?"

David answered: "We're….er…. working out the kinks here. How goes it on your end?"

Walter had been running interference all day. A lot of the little children that were holidaying there with their parents had been scared of the thunder and had started screaming and running around the rooms at four thirty, about an hour before the flood- threat made the boys vacate their tents. The children had been fussy and whiny all day and being cooped up inside wasn't doing anything for their moods, or their parents' moods. Or Walter's, for that matter.

The usually cheery man sighed. "Not that well, I'm afraid. I'm getting to be at the end of my rope here. I was wondering if I could ask you guys a small favour."

The three council members raised their eyebrows in an eerie simultaneous manner, as if prompting him to continue. He did:

"They're kids, right? So I figured they'd love cartoons and songs, and I thought; Hey, I've got a bunch of talented singers under my roof today! ….do you guys see where I'm going with this?"

David nodded: "You want us to sing Disney songs for the kids."

Walter nodded, eyes hopefully. David looked around the table to see what everyone else thought. Most of the Warblers seemed okay with it – Thad's irrational fear of all things Disney related not withstanding- , but Wes had his game face on. The other boys were fascinated by the tug of war that seemed to go on before their eyes. David's eyes were pleading, while Wes's were strict, unforgiving, and all about wanting to practise for Regionals more. In the end, Wes gave in, sighing.

"Fine, we'll do it. After dinner though, we'll need to prepare."

Blaine actually squealed.

* * *

When dinner came, all the boys were excited. They had selected some of what they thought to be the greatest Disney songs ever written, and were anxious to perform them(yes, even Thad) for the kids –and the teenagers that had heard about it through the camp- grapevine. When the time came to perform, the kids were lead to the large room behind the cafeteria by their parents.

The Warblers had divided the songs so that every Warbler had a solo somewhere, be it a few lines or a complete song. After Cameron and Matthew had performed 'Hakuna Matata' the group had done a rousing performance of 'I'll make a man out of you', and Blaine had lead them in 'One jump ahead', it was time for another group number. Adam stepped forward:

"Tell me kids, have you seen the newest Disney film yet? Tangled?"

"YEAAAH!" came the cry from the kids, a few teens joining in as well.

"Did you like it?"

Another resounding "YEEEEEAAAAAAH".

"Well, you'll enjoy this one then. Beat it, Trent."

As Trent started his beats and Thad joined in, Wes stepped forward to sing the first part.

"_I'm malicious, mean and scary, my sneer could curdle dairy. And violence-wise, my hands are not the cleanest…."_

Here, he looked positively weird, trying to look menacing and cheerful at the same time, while brandishing his Angie as a hook:

"_But despite my evil look, and my temper and my hook….I've always yearned to be a concert pianist! Can't you see me on the stage performin' Mozart, ticklin' the ivories 'til they gleam? Yep, I'd rather be called deadly for my killer show tune medley. Thank you, 'cause way down deep inside I've got a dream!"_

After the boys not providing a tune sang _"He's got a dream, he's got a dream",_ Wes continued:

"_See, I ain't as cruel and vicious as I seem. Though I do like breaking femurs, you can count me with the dreamers. Like everybody else, I've got a dream!"_

Next, Nick stepped forward, made up professionally by Kurt – who had managed to find stage make –up somewhere- to look ugly:

"_I've got scars and lumps and bruises, plus something here that oozes. And let's not even mention my complexion….But despite my extra toes, and my goiter and my nose….I really wanna make a love connection!"_

For the next few lines, he winked at each little girl –and not so little girl, he was after all, a teenage boy- jokingly:

_"Can't you see me with a special little lady, rowin' in a rowboat down the stream? Though I'm one disgusting blighter, I'm a lover, not a fighter. 'Cause way down deep inside, I've got a dream! __  
Visit .com__I've got a dream, (_He's got a dream), _I've got a dream, _(He's got a dream),_ And I know one day romance will reign supreme. Though my face leaves people screaming, there's a child behind it, dreaming. Like everybody else, I've got a dream!"_

The next part was chaos; the boys were running through the children, pointing at each other at each sentence:

"_Tor would like to quit and be a florist, Gunther does interior design. Ulf is into mime, Attila's cupcakes are sublime…Bruiser knits, Killer sews, Fang does little puppet shows. And Vladimir collects ceramic unicorns…"_

Next, Jason – who was kind of known to be a cheap skate-, was pushed forward, acting reluctant:

"_I have dreams like you, no, really. Just much less ….touchy-feely. They mainly happen somewhere warm and sunny. On an island that I own, tanned and rested and alone…surrounded by enormous piles of money!"_

After Jason, Ben, who was voted Rapunzel because of his shoulder-length blonde hair, practically skipped through the kids:

"_I've got a dream, _(She's got a dream),_ I've got a dream, _(She's got a dream)_.I just wanna see the floating lanterns gleam, Yeah! And with every passing hour, I'm so glad I left my tower! Like all you lovely folks, I've got a dream! "_

They finished together:

"_She's got a dream. He's got a dream. They've got a dream. We've got a dream. So our differences ain't really that extreme, we're one big team….Call us brutal, sick, sadistic, and grotesquely optimistic! 'Cause way down deep inside, we've got a dream! I've got a dream, I've got a dream, I've got a dream, I've got a dream, I've got a dream, I've got a dream….. Yes, way down deep inside, I've got a dream! Yeah!"_

They ended with a big group pose, all of them grinning stupidly with even Thad grinning along. The kids cheered, the teenagers were smiling and clapping and the parents looked happy to not have to entertain their offspring for a short while.

Next, the boys treated them to 'Part of your World'(Edward), 'Under the Sea'(group), 'Tale as Old as Time' (Kurt), 'Zero to Hero'( group), 'Ev'rybody wants to be a Cat' (Geoffrey and Flint), 'Colours of the Wind'(Blaine) and 'The Tigger Song' (Evan). They decided to end with The Lion King's 'Morning Report'. They had chosen Harry to voice Zazu's part based purely on him having the accent. David would be Mufasa, and Jeff was excited to be a young Simba.

They started off with Harry looking all smug and pompous, reciting his ridiculous lyrics filled with lame animal jokes and self-importance:

"_It's an honor and a privilege, a duty I perform  
With due sense of decorum and with pride  
With deference and great respect very much the norm  
Plus a hint of sycophancy on the side  
To lay before my ruler all the facts about his realm  
To fill him in on all the beastly news…."_

Here, David interrupted: _"__Yes, yes, Zazu, get on with it!"_

"_In order that His Majesty stands sturdy at the helm  
Aware of all the fauna's latest views!"_

David adopted an annoyed look: "_Zazu! The morning report!"_

"_Er - yes, Sire - the morning report …  
Chimps are going ape, firaffes remain above it all  
Elephants remember, though just what I can't recall  
Crocodiles are snapping up fresh offers from the banks  
Showed interes in my nest egg but I quickly said, "No thanks!"  
We haven't paid the hornbills and the vultures have a hunch  
Not everyone invited (sung) will be coming back from lunch  
This is the morning report  
Gives you the long and the short  
Every grunt, roar and snort  
Not a tale I distort  
On the morning report!"_

While Harry sang, Jeff was sneaking around the children, pretending to ready himself for an attack, using a kid or two for cover. David raised an imperious eyebrow, and said: _"What are you doing, son?"_

Jeff grinned from behind a small redheaded girl: "_Pouncing_!", to which David answered_:"Ahh…Let an old pro show you how it's done…"_

While Harry was busy singing his next lines, Jeff was making his way around to him, pretending to follow the orders David was giving him. The children grinned and hid their giggles at the performance.

"_The buffalo have got a beef  
About this season's grass  
Warthogs have been thwarted  
In attempts to save their gas  
_

From behind the children, David started instructing his pretend son by lyrics_:" Stay low to the ground, shh, not a sound! Take it slow….One more step….Then pounce!"_

_Flamingos in the pink  
Chasing secretary birds  
Saffron is this season's colour  
Seen in all the herds  
Moving down the rank and file  
To near the bottom rung  
Far too many beetles are  
Quite frankly in the dung!_

_AAAAAAAAAH!"_

Here, Jeff pounced, knocking Harry to the ground, and playfully sitting on his back while he sang his lyrics:

"_This is the morning report  
Gives you the long and the short  
Every grunt, roar and snort  
Not a tale I distort  
On the morning report!"_

Here, Harry managed to get Jeff of his back long enough to stand up, so he could join David and Jeff in the final chorus:

"_This is the morning report  
Gives you the long and the short  
Every grunt, roar and snort  
Not a tale I distort  
On the morning report!"  
_

* * *

Two hours later, when it had finally stopped raining, the Warblers headed back to their campsite. Upon arriving there, they noticed that all tents but one, had moved from their original place because of all the water.

Upon seeing that their tent was still in its rightful place, Kurt grinned at his roommate before turning to the rest of the Warblers, who were starting to put their tents back to where they should be. He said:

"Ha! You all laughed at my suitcase, but it did keep our tent grounded! Who's laughing now, huh?"

He looked at them gleefully, expression falling a bit as the other Warblers – even Blaine, the gel-less traitor!- snorted their laughter.

"Still us, Kurt."

* * *

**So, what's the verdict?**

**Reason for the quick update: I kind of want this story finished before I enter my end of year finals at university a month from now. **

**Ties in to 2: When I started this, I was thinking of making this a three story arc, with maybe a oneshot or two attached to it. What do you guys think? Would you like to stick with this for that long?**


	13. Scavenging

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods.**

**Chapter ****thirteen: Scavenging**

**Rating: T for now (I don't think it'll become M, actually)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC, Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'. **

**NOTES****: I wanted to have this up a few days ago. No such luck. I don't think I'll have this finished before my finals, so I'm just going to update this when creativity strikes and time allows it. The next one should be up soon.**

* * *

_Looking back on it, Thad could probably be blamed for the whole thing, _Kurt reflected as he rewrapped the bandaging around his roommate's wrist.

Harry hissed as the nail of Kurt's index finger scraped over the stitches. Kurt sent him an apologetic look. Looking around the room, he saw a few more Warblers getting patched up. Some had needed stitches, others a splint. Some were looking haggard, others relatively okay, but all had bruises somewhere on their body, be it hidden or in plain sight.

"Oh, Thad is going to get it now….", Harry muttered from next to Kurt as Wes was stalking towards poor Thad Thornton, Angie swinging scarily between his fingers. If Wes was scary normally, that was nothing compared to what he looked like now; with a black eye and a split lip. Wesley Graham-Chang could scare anyone senseless.

Kurt sighed. _Really,_ he thought, _I don´t even pity Thad. He __is__ to blame after all…_

* * *

That morning, at breakfast, Thad had dropped their new and improved day schedule in their laps, bravely ignoring the disbelieving glare Wes bestowed on him. Kurt and Blaine had shared a glance, wary of what this might mean. If Thad hadn't even bothered to run the new schedule by Wes (who was known to be very anal about things like that, as proven by him softly stroking his Angie under the table to calm himself down some) it couldn't mean much good for the Warblers.

"Okay Warblers, your attention for a moment please.", Thad had started off, making the boys who hadn't noticed the schedules yet pause in their eating. He continued:

"Today, we're changing things up a bit. Wes, please don't look at me like that. If I didn't think this was necessary I wouldn't undermine you and that wooden… thing of yours."

At this, most boys had started edging away from Wes a bit. To their surprise however, Wes had only stroked Angie more, whispering that the mean man didn't mean what he just said and that she was beautiful, no matter what anyone else said. Kurt had started to become slightly creeped out by it.

"Anyways," Thad had continued, " We're only two days away from having to return to Dalton. The day after that is Regionals, as you all know. Thing is though, boys, we still don't have our third song. I'm sure Vocal Adrenaline has had their lines and moves memorized for _months_ now and are probably on IV-drips because of their exhaustion by now. If we want to beat them, we need to bring it."

Here, he had motioned to David, who had continued the speech, warily glancing at Wes, who had worn a betrayed look on his face.

"Thad and I talked it over last night and we think another poppy number or another solo or group performance is just not going to cut it. We decided that a duet –how unconventional it may seem in an all- boys choir- could just be our best option. It would surprise people, and we might need the element of surprise to beat Vocal Adrenaline."

Wes had looked thoughtful at this, while the other boys had smiled or started scheming for song ideas in their heads. Kurt had been excited; a duet! A chance to maybe have a solo on stage, instead of simply doo- wopping behind Blaine –whose voice was excellent by the way, he wasn't disputing that, but still.

"So, here's the plan for today," Thad had picked up again. "From the end of breakfast till half past ten Kurt will drill us on yodelling some more so we've got that song down pat. Afterwards, we're all going to change shoes and meet outside our tents. Once there, you'll be handed a list. It's time for a scavenger hunt."

Kurt had looked unimpressed at this. Really, a scavenger hunt? What were they, four?

"Now, most of us were there for the last Warbler Seclusion Scavenger Hunt," Thad had continued, obviously trying to stop the grin on his face from spreading, "I would like to lay down the rules right now. Number one: If it says on your list 'something yellow', you're not allowed to present yourself or your team mate. Wes, David, I'm looking at you."

The two council members had had the grace to look sheepish, while Kurt and Blaine had exchanged a look that said '_what_ _– the- Prada?'._ Or well, that's what Kurt's had said at least. He wasn't sure about Blaine's.

"Number two," Thad had continued, "No asking locals to give you a ride to the nearest supermarket so you can get most of what's on the list there. It's just not fair. Number three: If you've got to go, you've got to go….in the nearest bathroom, not on a popular forest trail. Number four: If it looks like a snake, moves like a snake, and hisses like a snake…it's not. It's a tree branch. I really don't want another hysterical evening like last time, Cameron. Okay?"

Cameron had flushed a bright red, which clashed horribly with his ginger hair, nodding. Around him, the boys remembering that particular event laughed, not even trying to hide their mirth.

Kurt's face had by this point transformed into : '_Oh- my -Gucci- these- boys- are- terrible- get- me- to- a- day- spa- stat'_ mode. Next to him, Blaine's face hadn't looked much better.

"Now, something important. This scavenger hunt is done in pairs which will be chosen randomly in a few moments. With your partner you do not only look for the items on your scavenger list, but you also think up ideas for the duet for Regionals. I want two song selections from each pair, and one of them to be performed by you tonight after dinner. Try to think out of the box a little, okay boys?"

As the boys had nodded and had started finishing their breakfast – which had now turned cold, thanks a lot, Thad- David and Thad had started fishing names from the cap Flint always had on. After a few minutes, they had grabbed their attention again, rattling of the pairs. Kurt was a bit disappointed not to be paired with Blaine (Because he knew their voices sounded awesome together), but was happy enough to be with his roommate on this.

"Alright boys," Wes had said, speaking up for the first time since having been schedule- robbed, "Let's get this day going."

* * *

"I am officially tired of this," Kurt had said, wiping the bottom of his shoe against the nearest tree to rid it of excrements.

"Oh, come one, Kurt, we've only been at it for half an hour!", Harry had answered cheerfully.

"My point exactly," Kurt had grumbled in response. "More than enough scavenging for a lifetime."

Harry had laughed, comfortably throwing an arm around Kurt's shoulder. "Oh, come on Kurt, stop sucking all the fun out of this! Look at all this green, and the trees, and the sky and all the cute little animals."

"Those are insects. I think you just stepped in an ant heap."

"I believe you might be right."

* * *

"Let's see….we still need a fox's tail. Wait, what? That can't be right…."

"Let me see it, Dan. No, it says 'box of hail'….well that can't be right either."

"Who wrote these anyways? Half of the things on this list are either ridiculous or illegible."

"I'm betting it's David. His chicken scratch is infamous in the dorms."

"Why can't I just dorm too, Trent? It sounds like so much fun!"

"You live just down the street from Dalton."

"So?"

* * *

"I'll bet that this whole thing is just Thad's idea of revenge for the Disney- thing last night."

"No bet there, Blainy- bear. No bet."

"I mean, really, everything is still soaking wet from the storm yesterday. Aside from the yucky- factor; how are we supposed to find anything on the list underneath all the mud?"

"You're just pissy because you don't get to do this and the duet with Kurt."

"Don't be ridiculous, Jeff. Of course I'm not."

Silence.

"Oh shut up."

* * *

"I'm telling you, Cameron, it's not a snake. It's a tree branch, just like Thad said it would be."

"If you say so… come on, Wes, let's go. I can see some of the others gathering already."

Behind them, said tree branch opened an eye.

* * *

"I think we're really going to nail this thing, Kurt. This song is amazing. _You're_ amazing. Your voice is just awesome!"

A blush, quickly hidden by a smile. "Thanks. You're pretty awesome yourself."

"Hey, Blaine said you used to cheer-

"Oh, great. Of course he did."

- So maybe, we could think of a dance routine to go with it or something? The shuffle-step-turn thing is starting to wear thin a bit…"

"I can work with that… that has the potential of being really great, actually."

"Of course it's great. I thought of it."

"Oh, and he's modest too."

"Oh, Kurt, _doll_, can you blame me?"

Another blush. _No, I really can't._

* * *

"I'm still not convinced that wasn't a snake, Wes."

"Oh, hush you. Come one, let's ask Thad."

"But Thad didn't even see it!"

"….Thad's special like that."

A mutter: "Special like _you_, you mean?"

* * *

"The song _is_ a bit edgy though, don't you think?"

"Are you backing down now, Kurt? This was your idea, remember?"

"Yeah, I know. I just don't want to…I don't know… make anyone uncomfortable or anything."

"I understand. The song is kind of suggestive. But they won't be expecting it. And it's another musical number, and so much fun to do!"

A moment of silence, glass eyes turning to the ground, not really knowing what to say.

"What is this really about Kurt?"

"It's just… never mind. Let's just do the song."

"We'll do the song anyway, because it's perfect, it fits us. Will you please tell me what's going on?"

A small sigh, eyes still nowhere near his roommate's.

"No guy's ever been willing to sing with me for a competition. We had them with in New Directions every week, and no guy ever wanted to sing with me. Blaine's the only guy who ever willingly sang with me, and that was just because he needed someone to practise with anyhow."

"Hey, listen to me Kurt. I'd love to sing with you, no matter what song. Sure, it's suggestive and maybe slightly inappropriate, but we're going to kill this thing, you hear me?... unless you hate the idea of getting suggestive with me on stage, in which case we can still choose another song."

"No! I mean…no, I don't mind that.. are you sure?"

"Good, 'cause I don't mind either. And of course I am sure. Come on, let's head back to camp."

* * *

"Hey, Ben?"

"Hmm?"

"Did that branch just move?"

"Of course it didn't…- HOLY HELL, RUN!"

* * *

Long story short: All hell broke loose.

When word spread through the Warblers that there actually _was_ a rampaging snake this time around, reactions were varied. Some boys screamed and ran, Cameron paled and froze, Geoffrey fainted, Nick tried to get him awake and Jeff didn't know if he should run or take pictures.

When Harry and Kurt had entered the campsite, they had stepped right into chaos. They were informed about what was going on by the screams and the boys trying to catch the reptile with a stick and net.

"We need to get higher," Matthew had muttered before his eye caught the raised platform next to the fire. The boys were shepherded on to it by Thad who had been signalled by Matthew, none of them hearing the ominous creaking it did until it was too late.

The rotten planks beneath their feet had cracked almost simultaneously and the boys fell down on a heap of wood and _rocks_, tangled up in each other or rolling away on instinct.

After a few minutes of silence where everyone was catching their breath, Evan had been the first to voice what they were all thinking:

"Holy mother of hell…that _hurt_!"

* * *

_So yeah, _Kurt thought, _This could very well have been all Thad's fault._

After all, it had been Thad to have changed their schedule. Thad who had suggested the scavenger hunt. Thad who had told everyone there were no snakes there. Thad who had put them up on the platform. Thad who was currently being berated by Wes.

Looking down on his roommate, Kurt couldn't help but smile, a blush fighting its way to the surface of his cheeks. Harry had proven to be such a great guy these last few days. He was nice, charming, witty, incredibly handsome, and completely willing to sing suggestive, flirty songs with him in front of hundreds of people. And, maybe, possibly, Kurt was really starting to get over Blaine. And maybe, possibly, Harry had something to do with that.

Seeing Harry smile at him, Kurt immediately returned the smile, thinking:

_Yeah, Thad is to blame. I should get that boy a gift basket._

* * *

**So, what did you think? I'm a bit 'meh' on this one.**

**In other news: I'm thinking of starting up another story soon, which will be a story of interconnected one-shots about the Warblers. Thoughts on that?**

**Till next time!**


	14. Of bumps and bruises

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods.**

**Chapter ****fourteen: Of bumps and bruises**

**Rating: T for now (I don't think it'll become M, actually)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC, Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'. **

**NOTES****: Tadaaa! Another quickie. It's ,er, mostly filler, I admit. I needed a bit of a bridge between last chapter –which I'm still not that happy about- and the next, which is going to be longer.**

**Also, I started up that story I mentioned last chapter, if any of you would like to go check it out. It's called 'The Warbler Handbook'.**

* * *

When Kurt had gotten up the next morning he had longed back for the days when he was a cheerleader and he was used to the hurting in his arms, and legs and back each and every morning. Because that never hurt as much as this did. He seriously started rethinking sending Thad a gift basket.

When Harry had started stirring next to him – scratch that, half on top of him, and damn it if he didn't start appreciating that more and more every day- the first sound that had come out of his mouth was a long 'ooooooooow'.

After the boys had untangled themselves- something that had become a common occurrence- they simply sat up straight in their sleeping bags, trying to work out the kinks in their back, trying not to stare at each other too much. After a few moments of this, Harry sighed and said:

"Our choreography for Regionals is screwed now, huh?"

"Pretty much, yeah.", Kurt deadpanned, thinking of how two boys had sprained an ankle, one had torn some muscle in his foot, and two had twisted their knees in a bad way in the fall the day before. And that's not even mentioning the boys with sprained wrists, or wounds that had needed stitches, or the two dislocated shoulders and the numerous bruises each boy had gotten away with. Speaking of wounds….

"How's your arm?", Kurt asked, holding out his hand in a silent question. Harry gently lay his wrist in his upturned palm and allowed his roommate to undress the bandage.

"It stings like hell.", he answered, wincing a bit at the pressure being removed as Kurt wrapped up the bandage and tossed it into the bag they used as a laundry basket (or really, the bag he had _forced_ Harry to use as a laundry basket). He then inspected the gash, checking to see if any dirt had gotten to it and had caused an infection. It looked clean enough, so Kurt started looking through the medical kit the nurse had given them the day before, when they left the First- Aid room.

"That's to be expected. It looks good though," he said, then grimaced. "As far as a wound can actually look good, that is. You know what I mean." He then sat up straight again, victoriously holding a clean roll of bandages.

"Now, hand me your arm again."

Harry did so, smiling at his friend indulgently, kind of unable to refuse him anything when he had that worried glint in his eyes. It was kind of really adorable, actually.

* * *

The morning was filled with singing, singing, and more singing. They had wanted to do something else, but...well… they hurt. A lot. And they still really needed to prepare for Regionals, which was getting scarily close. They only had that day left to practise really, as the next would consist of the long bus ride back –hopefully with less trouble than the first time- and the day after that they would have to compete already.

They were feeling rather confident though, even though they had cut is so close – and Kurt was willing to bet his hairspray that Wes had had several panic attacks in the safety of his tent at night- and hadn't practised as much as they should have.

Even though the song that had been chosen by the Show Choir Competition Board of Representatives should have been their downfall, they had had Kurt there to save the day by teaching the boys with the right vocal range how to yodel and taking the lead himself. And he was damn proud of that, thank you very much. All the years of fanboying over the Sound of Music had finally paid off, just like he had always suspected it would.

Raise Your Glass was going to be a hit. They had of course decided that Blaine was going to lead them through those few minutes and had even thought up a choreography that was designed to wow the audience. A choreography they now couldn't perform of course, because every move they made hurt. A lot.

The third song had only been decided the day before, after they had all had a check-up in the First Aid room in Walter's main building. Every duo had performed the song they had chosen, and there had been a very democratic voting. Which Harry and Kurt had actually won. So, of course, Kurt was excited. The _shit- your- pants- without- actually- shitting- your- pants- holy- hell- I- get- to- sing – another- song_!—kind of excited.

And so Kurt and Harry had practised their song together softly for most of the night, making sure the other Warblers wouldn't wake up and be unbearable the next day. They had decided on who would take which part, how they'd move around the stage –which had been quite hard to demonstrate in their small tent, by the way- when they would look at the audience and when they would look at each other, demonstrating the underlying meaning of the song and hoping the judges wouldn't think it too provocative.

They had finally fallen asleep around three in the morning, with Harry being the first to give in to the temptation of sleep, already falling asleep on his roommate. Kurt hadn't had the heart to wake him – and, alright, maybe he really liked the feel of his roommate snuggled up against him now- and had instead just lain his head down on top of Harry's and closed his eyes himself.

Now that it was time for lunch however, Kurt seriously started regretting staying up that late. Combined with his aching muscles, the lack of sleep did nothing for his mood or his willingness to yodel or pretend to be a ukulele.

Sitting down in the empty seat Blaine and Harry had left open for him, he started noticing the things his roommate and his best friend had in common. Both had very dark hair, both had amazing voices, both were great with children (as evidenced by Blaine's singing at birthday parties and Harry's way of dealing with the children that seemed to gravitate towards him during this seclusion), both were athletic (Blaine was on the soccer team and Harry ran track), both were incredibly sweet and charming. And both were unknowing subjects of a Kurt Hummel crush.

Being pulled out of his thoughts by one of the boys in question, Kurt turned to his roommate, who was looking frantic because of something Wes had probably just said – Kurt deduced this from Wes's sitting down (he hadn't even noticed him stand up, let alone give a speech) and the excited whispers from the boys around him at whatever the council member had just told them- and was tugging on his arm, trying to get his attention.

"What is it, Harry?" Kurt asked, genuinely wanting to know what was going on, because he was curious like that.

Harry looked relieved that he had Kurt's attention. "Please tell me you'll help me pick out an outfit for tonight's party? Please."

Oh Gaga, not the puppy dog eyes! Harry did those far too well, having those big, beautiful green eyes and all. How could he help but give in?

"Of course. I'll always try to save you from your poor fashion choices."

"Thanks, Kurt!" Harry grinned, turning to talk to David and leaving Kurt to go back to his own thoughts.

Wait. Hold the phone.

What party?

* * *

**Thoughts, hopes, wishes? Let me know! I appreciate each and every review and alert that comes this story's way ^^**

**Till next time!**


	15. Shall we dance?

**Title: Of Warblers and Woods.**

**Chapter ****fifteen: Shall we dance?**

**Rating: T for now (I don't think it'll become M, actually)**

**Pairing: Kurt/OC, Pre-Klaine**

**Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.**

**Summary: Will a traditional Warbler excursion, the return of the Prodigal Warbler and a whole lot of plotting bring Kurt and Blaine further together or drive them apart? Kurt/OC, pre-Klaine. AU after 'Sexy'. **

**NOTES: ****I'm so, **_**so**_** sorry for the incredible delay! I mean, a month? Really? Atrocious, really. In my defense, real life and kicked me in the butt. Hard. I had my end of years exams, found out that because of a glitch in the computer system at school that I wasn't allowed to do a retake of the test I missed last year because of it and would be required to leave the school, without having graduated. Meaning I have just wasted two years of university time and money to be screwed over and leaving without a diploma, even though I've earned every other credit. So now I'm searching for a new career path while I'm busy with the appeal I've sent in and defending my case. Which I'm pretty sure I'll lose, cause no student has ever won against the school board and I have no proof to back up my case. Meaning I'm screwed. So, after several rage attacks, crying spells and nearly storming the school, here I am with a very delayed fifteenth chapter. Please forgive me.**

**Also, my thanks to each and every reviewer, alerter and favouriter (which is now so a word) for this story. The response has been incredible! **

**Another chapter or two to go fort his part of the arc, I think. I promise it won't take another month till the next update. Also: this one's a bit larger than usual, to sorta, maybe, hopefully, make up for my absense a bit.**

**Also: Major freak out, cause my mum surprised me with tickets to see **_**Wicked **_**in **_**LONDON!**_** Awesome XD**

* * *

"No, no, _no. Absolutely not._"

The dark haired boy that had been proudly showing off what he had deemed the perfect party- wear stopped in his proud twirling, a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Oh come on, Kurt! This is the fourth outfit you nixed! What's wrong with this one?" Thad asked, pouting just a bit and wanting to be done with this.

The fashionable Warbler that was criticizing Thad's clothing crossed his legs over each other, wearing his best _'I- know- fashion- much- better- than –you- do- you- uncultured- boy'-_ expression.

"First of all," he started, "I believe I already gave my opinion on that hoodie when you wore it to a study session on Maths a few weeks ago. Am I right?"

The council member frowned a bit. "Yeah, I guess."

"And do you remember what happened then?", the fashionista asked.

Thad's shoulders slumped as realisation hit him.

"You made me go change." At Kurt's satisfied nod, he added: "But that was just because the colours were too distracting for studying, right? It's a great hoodie, right?"

Kurt's look said it all. But, just in case the _'bitch- please'- _glare wasn't enough, he said:

"It's purple and orange. It's hideous."

"Oh, come on. It's so comfy! And it looks just fine with these trousers. Blaine, back me up here!"

Blaine, who had been sitting on Kurt's left, desperately trying not to be noticed because he had learned long ago not to get in the way of Kurt on a fashion- mission – no matter how _adorable_ _driven_ he looked while doing so—had to try not to let out an 'eep' because all eyes were now on him. On Kurt's other side, Harry tried to stifle a snort. And failed.

Blaine sighed. "Sorry Thad. It _is_ kind of awful."

Thad's face fell and he grudgingly crawled back into his tent, trying to find something else to wear. Kurt jumped out of his seat, unable to watch another fashion disaster, and followed him in.

Blaine turned to Harry, who looked quite good in the outfit Kurt had picked out for him – a dark green button down with a pair of jeans in such a dark blue colour that they were almost black and paired with a pair of black Converse- and smiled.

"Kurt did well."

Harry grinned, looking down at what he was wearing. "Yeah, he's pretty good at that. But so are you, from the looks of it."

Blaine was wearing a dark red shirt that clung to him just enough, with a pair of dark jeans and comfortable loafers. He grinned conspiringly: "Actually, Kurt picked this out for a party a month or two ago. I figured I should bring it just in case."

A surprised laugh escaped Harry. "Smart of you, real smart. Kurt does have great taste. He's great."

The last part was said in a softer tone of voice, making Blaine narrow his eyes at him a bit in suspicion.

"Yeah," the lead soloist agreed, "Yes he is."

As the newest addition to the Warblers climbed out of Thad's tent gracefully, Blaine resolved to ignore the weird flip his stomach had done when Harry had spoken and focus on the party later on. Maybe he'd just had something bad for lunch.

* * *

So, the thing Kurt hadn't heard about because he was busy with more important things (His incredibly handsome new roommate who he may just be crushing on terribly was more important than the stuff Wes usually talked about, ok? Give a fashionista a break here) during dinner? A party, because they were leaving. They had been assured that the party wasn't really _because_ they were leaving, cause they were quite happy putting them up a few days longer.

Apparently, it was tradition that on the night before coming out of the Seclusion, a party was held , in their honour, for good luck during the competition. Everyone but the smallest children would be there, including the high school class from Columbus that held the clingy girls Kurt still had nightmares about.

Of course, a party wouldn't be a party without dressing up, or – in most Dalton boy cases, as Kurt had noticed- at least trying to make yourself look half-way presentable and not as if a rainbow just puked all over you. Yes, Thad, that means you.

Stepping out of Thad's tent he noticed Harry and Blaine seemed to have some tension between them, especially on Blaine's side. He hoped to Gucci that it wasn't sexual tension. Just as he was about to address the issue, he noticed Evan trying to get past him wearing green sneakers under his grey trousers. Time to stop another fashion disaster from happening.

* * *

When Kurt, Blaine, Harry, Thad and Evan (now wearing classy black loafers) entered the music room that had been redecorated slightly to make it seem more party-ish, they noticed Walter waiting for them. In a bright orange suit. Kurt cringed. Thad nudged him.

"Why does he get to wear orange when I'm not allowed?"

Kurt didn't even deign him with an answer, instead just raising an eyebrow haughtily.

"Welcome boys, welcome! We're serving a light meal today, so you boys don't get nauseous while dancing later on. " The boisterous man said. "You're a bit late by the way, you're the last ones here. May I ask why?"

The four boys looked at Kurt, blaming him for their tardiness with their eyes alone.

"Yeah, yeah," Kurt waved them off, looking around at the decorations. "At least you lot look presentable now."

The boys quickly took a seat at the Warbler table, noticing that the two tables next to them housed the other high school class that was there and that the other tables were either being used as snack tables or by a few of the other campers that had wanted to be there.

As Kurt sat down he noticed the oblivious girl from a few days earlier – _Julietta…. Jeannette… Jean….. Jeanie…. Jolie….. Julie! That's it. Julie_.- wave and wink at him. Next to him, Blaine snorted in barely supressed mirth. He elbowed him none to gently in the side, ignoring the mock- wounded expression sent his way.

Dinner proceeded in a normal fashion. The boys ate, talked, laughed and made fun of Walter's suit silently. The other high school- ers were a bit louder, but still managed to behave alright – which was probably because of their teacher sitting not two feet away from them- and the other campers conversed amongst themselves.

After dinner, tables were shoved to the side to make room for dancing and Walter gave a little speech, boasting about how he once had been a part of the group of talented young men they saw before them that very evening or some other such rot. Kurt wasn't really paying attention, because that was the moment Wes decided to come _bouncing_ over to him, looking like his birthday had come early.

"Kurt, Blaine! Look! Look at Angie! Look what Flint made for her!"

And really, Kurt could not be blamed for being distracted. For there was Angie the Gavel, clutched firmly in Wes' hand, wearing a small pink ball gown that looked as if Barbie had thrown up all over it. While Wes was busy rattling all the things he like about it to Blaine ("It's soooo sparkly! And pink! And it has these little stars, see? Cause Angie is the real star amongst us, and the glitter is so cute, cause it's all pink and gold and…Blaine? Are you paying attention to me?") Kurt – and Harry, who had walked up to them, wondering what made Wes smile and bubble like a little girl on crack- chanced a glance at Flint, who mouthed: _"It was meant as a joke. Honest."_ before looking away sheepishly.

While Wes skipped away, twirling Angie and her sparkly dress around for everyone to see, Harry snorted: "Dear Lord, how is he still convincing everyone he's straight?"

Jeff, who had witnessed the whole thing, came up next to him and swung his arm around his shoulders playfully. "The same way you have, Hare-bear."

"To be fair," Harry retorted, shrugging off the arm, not seeing the disappointed look in Jeff's eyes but looking Kurt straight in the eyes as if he was trying to tell him something, "I've never claimed to be straight."

Kurt raised an eyebrow, loving and hating the hopeful little leap his heart made at those words. Not straight? _Interesting_….

"Wait. You're gay?"

"Bi, actually," Jeff answered in Harry's stead. "Poor fellow still doesn't see the icky-ness of the female sex."

Here, the blonde Warbler actually faked a shiver, confirming Kurt's beliefs about there being not two, but three gay Warblers at Dalton. His attention was drawn away from these thoughts when Walter announced that it was time for the dancing to begin… and promptly put on some disco. Kurt rolled his eyes. It looked like it was going to be a _long_ night.

* * *

About two hours and several really bad music choices later, Kurt found himself in a bit of a predicament.

Harry was off getting drinks with Nick, Jeff was busy taking pictures of everything that moved and some things that didn't, Flint was overseeing a friendly competition between Wes and Blaine ( Wes, after having heard one to many smart aleck- remarks about his love for his gavel was trying to prove that he was still manly and suave enough to acquire a number of phone numbers from the girls present. Blaine had somehow gotten roped into being his 'healthy competition', meaning that Wes didn't really expect a gay guy to be able to get girls' phone numbers. Poor boy should've stuck around for the end of the 'Animal' performance a week ago…) and David was…somewhere doing something. No clue where or what, really.

This meant that for the first time that evening, Kurt was well and truly on his own. Something the girls of the other high school present had picked up on, judging by the giggling going on there. After a few minutes of excessive giggling by the girls and checking out the nearest escape routes by Kurt, the girl that had clung to him while he was eating a few days prior was shoved forward gently, cheeks red and a shy smile on her face.

Pretty much knowing what was probably about to occur, Kurt started praying to Gucci that the audio equipment would give out and die, saving him from having to dance with Julie. Of course, such a thing did not occur and before he knew it, he was dancing –and doing so quite spectacularly, thank you very much- to Lady Gaga's 'Judas' (Walter having been persuaded to try something other than disco) with her. The speedy dancing he could take. It wasn't until a clichéd slow song came on, that he started to panic.

Julie was looking at him like she couldn't wait to be wrapped up in his arms, and Kurt knew that was something he couldn't let happen. Not only because he didn't really want to lead her on, but also because he had sort of, kind of, been hoping to be wrapped in someone's arms himself tonight. Before he could think up excuses however, a cultured, accented voice cut into his inner ramblings, elegantly stretching out a hand in between them. Ah…think of the devil…

"Excuse me, may I cut in?"

Kurt looked up at the English boy as if he was an angel come from Prada to save him.

"Of course, be my guest. I'm sure Julie would love a dance."

Trying not to notice the fallen expression on Julie's face, Kurt made to turn around and walk away, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Not quite what I had in mind, Kurt," Harry's voice came again.

Before he knew it, Kurt was being led away from the hopeful girl and spun around softly to fall into a simple dance with his roommate. Getting over his surprise quickly and determined not to let show this was exactly what he had been hoping for all evening, Kurt settled into Harry, one hand on his shoulder, the other nestled in a warm hand.

"Thanks for the save, Hare," he muttered, feeling a bit lightheaded. "I really didn't feel like dancing with her."

The green- eyed boy holding him chuckled. "No problem. I could kind off tell."

Just as Kurt was starting to let himself really enjoy dancing with the boy he was crushing on immensely, the thing he had been praying for only minutes earlier finally happened: the audio equipment died.

"Oh, you've _got_ to be kidding me," he mumbled, feeling his roommate's hand softly release him.

"What was that?"

"Hmm? Nothing."

* * *

After Walter had apologised profusely for his terrible audio equipment, he proposed a slightly different way to have music. To Kurt's absolute horror and Blaine's girlish delight, he dragged a karaoke machine out of seemingly nowhere, proclaiming that with all the talented teens there, they'd have a music filled night anyways. Kurt, remembering Blaine's drunken 'Don't you want me' performance a few weeks prior, vowed not to go anywhere near the damn thing. Blaine, predictably, had already bounded over to go through the songbook.

Kurt himself had managed to shake off any other attempts to dance by Julie, who didn't seem to care whether there was music or not, and now found himself near the snack table, watching in a barely concealed mixture of disgust and awe as Cameron tore his way through the veritable mountain of gummy snakes that lay heaped in a bowl, muttering things like "_revenge, bitches_!" and "_Who's the scary one now, huh?"._

Fearing for the sanity of his fellow Warbler, Kurt sidled over to Jeff, who was still busy photographing everything, including Cameron's snake massacre.

"What, exactly, is Cameron doing?"

"I suspect he's trying to rid himself of his fear of snakes," Jeff retorted, trying not to look too excited by the embarrassing photo opportunity he was being offered by Cameron.

In a twisted way, Kurt reflected, this kind of made sense. Upon saying so, Jeff quickly agreed, but was prevented from answering by Harry quickly walking up to them, a manic glint in his eyes.

"Everyone, act cool! David and Wes are asking again."

Jeff quickly started looking around for the terrible twosome as Cameron nearly snorted out a gummy snake. Kurt was confused.

"Asking about what?"

"Oh right," Harry realised, "You don't know! Apparently, ever since freshman year, Wes and David have been trying to determine which of them is the more attractive of the two of them."

"Exactly," Jeff added. "I've seen them try to ask some of the girls here, too. The beauty of it is though, that neither of us gay or bi Dalton boys have ever given them a straight answer."

"And don't you be giving them one either," Harry continued. "We like to keep them guessing."

Kurt nodded. "Alright, I get that. I won't tell them either."

From besides the three boys, Cameron turned to them.

"So…just out of curiosity….?"

"Wes." The three boys answered in unison, giggling a bit at each other's dumbfounded expressions at having been so unanimous. Cameron raised a pensive eyebrow, trying to think of a suitable comment, before giving up and going back to his gummy snakes.

Before the boys could start a new conversation, up on the makeshift stage, Blaine picked up the microphone for his third song of the evening, a small gaggle of teenage girls squealing as they recognised the romantic song he was about to sing.

Next to Kurt, Harry sighed, causing the fashionable boy to glance over to him, only to catch the beautiful eyes of his roommate as they appeared to be contemplating asking him something. Not daring to hope for what he wanted those eyes to really be asking, he just raised a questioning eyebrow. Harry seemed a bit insecure, but ploughed on anyways:

"I, er, kinda really love this song, and I was kinda hoping you'd dance it with me since our last dance was interrupted and I'd really like to dance with you some more and-"

Kurt interrupted him, taking his hand and leading them back on the dance floor: "I'd love to, come on."

* * *

As the boys started to softly sway to Blaine's rendition of Jon McLauhglin's 'So close' , two boys on the other side of the room started to take notice.

"Still, I'm pretty sure at least Jeff thinks _I_ am the hot one here," David tried to sell to his friend.

"Nonsense David," Wes replied. "Angie says _I_ am obviously the better looking one."

"I'm sure Angie knows what she's talking about," the dark-skinned boy replied, not really wanting to get into another argument about how Angie wasn't in fact the sentient being Wes made her out to be. Looking around the room, he suddenly noticed something happening on the dance floor.

"Hey, Wes, look at Harry and Kurt over there."

"Where? Omigosh, they are so cute together! Don't you think so Angie? Angie thinks so too."

Resolutely ignoring the craziness that housed in his best friend, David said: "I had a feeling those two were going to wind up together at some point. Harry's just a little _too _good at handling Kurt's sporadic bitchiness."

"I know," Wes replied, thinking about something. "Ooh! What would be their couple name? I like 'Kurry'!"

"Couple name?"

"You know, when two people get together and their names are mashed together. Like TomKat or Branniston!"

David gave his friend a weird look, wondering how many teen gossip magazines his friend actually read. His Asian buddy continued:

"And I now vote we call them 'Kurry'!"

"I don't know about that, kinda makes me think of food…"

"Hurt?"

"Bit angsty, don't you think?"

"Karry?"

"What's that even supposed to _mean_?"

"Whos says it even has to mean something? Hart then?"

"I kinda like that. A bit sappy though."

"Hart it is then."

"You do realise they're not exactly together _yet_, right Wes?"

"Just wait and see, my friend. Just wait for it."

* * *

Kurt was trying really, really hard not to show how much he was enjoying dancing with Harry. While on the inside he was twirling around like a maniac, jumping around, doing every single stunt his stint with the Cheerios last year had taught him and screaming various variations of the words 'finally' and 'oh my Gucci, so wonderful' and funnily enough 'yippie-ah-yee' (for which he blamed Finn and his endless supply of terrible cowboy- jokes), on the outside he was his usual calm and composed self, with maybe a bit of a blush to betray how he was really feeling.

Harry, on the other hand, wasn't faring as well.

"Kurt, just to make it clear," the foreign Warbler managed to stutter out, "This isn't just a dance between friends, right?"

Kurt grinned, ecstatic at having his hopes made real for the first time in a very long time.

"No Hare, it really isn't."

And without further ado, Kurt pressed his lips to his roommates, initiating what he would later call his _real_ first kiss.

Neither boy noticed a blonde Warbler lowering his camera on the other side of the room, a breaking heart reflected in his eyes.

* * *

**So? I don't know, I'm a bit unhappy about the ending. It feels a bit rushed. What do you guys think?**


End file.
